Generate date string with ToString("u") and with a T before the hour

Question

I'm developing a C# library with .NET Framework 4.5.

I need to generate this date string: 2015-12-01T07:54:20Z But now I'm generating this date string: 2015-12-01 07:54:20Z (the same that previous one but with out the T).

To generate that date I'm using this code: DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime().ToString("u")

How can I generate the other date string with the T?

Don't use `DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime()`; use `DateTime.UtcNow`. It is cleaner and also more efficient. `DateTime.Now` converts UTC time to local time and that is a non-trivial thing to do. — Martin Liversage, Dec 18 '15 at 08:58

Heinzi · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-18T09:04:25.683

4

Your format (without the trailing Z) is called the sortable format, and it has the pre-defined format specifier "s":

DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("s") + "Z"

yields

2015-12-18T09:04:58Z

edited Dec 18 '15 at 09:04

answered Dec 18 '15 at 08:58

Heinzi

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 18 '15 at 08:52

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You can write whole format DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime().ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ")

or use less elegant solution ToString("u").Replace(" ","T")

HH is for 24h format and hh is for 12h format

answered Dec 18 '15 at 08:52

Slasko

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score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '15 at 08:56

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Either

DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH\:mm\:ss.fffffffzzz");

give you 2015-12-18T13:57:31.2311892-04:00

or

DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("o");

give you 2015-12-18T14:01:54.9571247Z

answered Dec 18 '15 at 08:56

Turbot

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Have you _ever_ read the question? These are not what OP wants. – Soner Gönül Dec 18 '15 at 08:57
You have a problem with the backslashes in your string. Either escape them or use a verbatim string literal (`@"..."`). – Martin Liversage Dec 18 '15 at 09:02
And your first example won't _even_ compile. – Soner Gönül Dec 18 '15 at 09:02

Generate date string with ToString("u") and with a T before the hour

3 Answers3