Formatting date in Linq-to-Entities query causes exception

Question

I have Entity class with datetime filed, I want to select distinct \'mon-yyyy\' format datetime filed value and populate drop down list.

the following code giving me

Answer 1

Here's an alternative:

.Select( p -> SqlFunctions.StringConvert((double)
                  SqlFunctions.DatePart("m", p.modified)).Trim() + "/" +
              // SqlFunctions.DateName("mm", p.modified) + "/" + MS ERROR?
              SqlFunctions.DateName("dd", p.modified) + "/" +
              SqlFunctions.DateName("yyyy", p.modified)

Apparently DateName("MM", ..) spells out the month name where DatePart("mm", ..) provides a numeric value, thus the StringConvert( ), but this left pads the result with spaces, thus the .Trim().

Like Anthony Pegram said above, this happens in the database rather than in C# (.AsEnumerable() pulls all data local to C# so make sure you filter data prior to using it.)

Obviously you'd want to rearrange the output slightly to fit yyyy-MM and use either DatePart for the digit or DateName for the month name.