How to exclude seconds from DateTime.ToString()

Question

I am using DateTime.Now.ToString() in a windows service and it is giving me output like \"7/23/2010 12:35:07 PM \" I want to exclude the second part, displaying only up to m

Answer 1

If you want to stay language independent, you could use the following code (maybe in an IValueConverter (see second code snippet)) to remove only the seconds part from the string:

int index = dateTimeString.LastIndexOf(':');
if (index > -1) {
    dateTimeString = dateTimeString.Remove(index, 3);
}

Here's an implementation of the converter.

[ValueConversion(typeof(DateTime), typeof(string))]
public class DateTimeToStringConverter : Markup.MarkupExtension, IValueConverter {
    public DateTimeToStringConverter() : base() {
        DisplayStyle = Kind.DateAndTime;
        DisplaySeconds = true;
    }

    #region IValueConverter
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, Globalization.CultureInfo culture) {
        if (value == null) return string.Empty;
        if (!value is DateTime) throw new ArgumentException("The value's type has to be DateTime.", "value");

        DateTime dateTime = (DateTime)value;

        string returnValue = string.Empty;

        switch (DisplayStyle) {
            case Kind.Date:
                returnValue = dateTime.ToShortDateString();
                break;
            case Kind.Time:
                returnValue = dateTime.ToLongTimeString();
                break;
            case Kind.DateAndTime:
                returnValue = dateTime.ToString();
                break;
        }

        if (!DisplaySeconds) {
            int index = returnValue.LastIndexOf(':');

            if (index > -1) {
                returnValue = returnValue.Remove(index, 3);
            }
        }

        return returnValue;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, Globalization.CultureInfo culture) {
        throw new NotSupportedException();
    }
    #endregion

    public override object ProvideValue(IServiceProvider serviceProvider) {
        return this;
    }

    #region Properties
    public Kind DisplayStyle { get; set; }

    public bool DisplaySeconds { get; set; }
    #endregion

    public enum Kind {
        Date,
        Time,
        DateAndTime
    }
}

You can also use it in XAML as a markup extension: