Retrieving a DateTime value from a DataRow (C#)

Question

How can I get DateTime value in C# from row, the current code is giving me error any help is appreciated, the data is coming in from progress database:

foreach (DataRow r in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
{
    string prodCode = r["PRD-CDE"].ToString();
    statCode = r["STAT"].ToString();
    DateTime firstIssueDate = (DateTime)(r["FISS"]); 
    DateTime endIssueDate = (DateTime)(r["EISS"]);
    if(endIssueDate > DateTime.Now)
    { /*do some thing...*/}
    else {/*user invalid...*/}
}

there are two ways used in getting date convert and pars, thank you all for the help

Final working Code snippet:

foreach (DataRow r in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
            {
                string prodCode = r["PRD-CDE"].ToString(),statCode = r["STAT"].ToString();
               // r.<DateTime?>("FISS");
                if (r["FISS"] != DBNull.Value)
                {
                    DateTime firstIssueDate = Convert.ToDateTime(r["FISS"]);
                    if (r["EISS"] != DBNull.Value)
                    {
                        DateTime endIssueDate = DateTime.Parse(r["EISS"].ToString());
                        if (endIssueDate > DateTime.Now)
                        {

Whats the datatype of the column in the dataset? Is it SQL DateTime? — Neil N, Jul 09 '09 at 20:17
I know this is late, but if it's a date column in the DB then I would expect the object to already *be* a DateTime so no conversion should be necessary. — nickd, Feb 12 '10 at 10:34

Robert Luong · Accepted Answer · 2009-07-09T21:49:52.717

45

This is just a guess but if the corresponding type in the database is DateTime, could you check if the column is nullable?

If so you may want to do a check r["column"] == DBNull.Value and then pass it to a nullable DateTime? Field.

Or even easier:

row.Field<DateTime?>("column")

If it isn't then yeah, Convert.ToDateTime() or something else should do it.

EDIT:

I see your final code there but is there any chance you want to do this:

DateTime? firstIssueDate = r.Field<DateTime?>("fiss"); 
DateTime? endIssueDate = r.Field<DateTime?>("eiss"); 

if (firstIssueDate.HasValue && endIssueDate.HasValue) 
{ 
    firstIssueDate.Value // blah blah 
    endIssueDate.Value // blah blah 
}

edited Jul 09 '09 at 21:49

answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:26

Robert Luong

522
4
5

if(r["FISS"] == DBNull.Value) this one did it yes it is a null value, still testing:) Thank you – Developer Jul 09 '09 at 20:36
I saw your code and I added some suggestions in the 'EDIT' portion. What do you think? – Robert Luong Jul 09 '09 at 21:50
2

I've never seen the .Field<> method used.. Nice +1 – NotMe Sep 14 '11 at 13:31

score 12 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 13 '12 at 14:35

12

I would recommend using DateTime.Parse() if the row is returning a string for that index.

 string prodCode = r["PRD-CDE"].ToString(),statCode = r["STAT"].ToString();
 DateTime firstIssueDate = DateTime.Parse(r["FISS"].ToString());
 DateTime endIssueDate = DateTime.Parse(r["EISS"].ToString());

You could also use TryParse depending on your needs.

edited Nov 13 '12 at 14:35

mcNux

1,472
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13

answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:16

Chris Thompson

16,203
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Error: Argument '1': cannot convert from 'object' to 'string' after tyrying following code: DateTime firstIssueDate = DateTime.Parse(r["FISS"]); even tried: DateTime firstIssueDate = DateTime.Parse(r["FISS"].ToString()); Error: ex = {"String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."} – Developer Jul 09 '09 at 20:23
Is there any way you could show us what r["FISS"].ToString() looks like? Perhaps it's a nullable type as someone mentioned. – Chris Thompson Jul 09 '09 at 20:32

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 22:00

If you want to use a default value (such as DateTime.MinValue), rather than null (DateTime?) or DBNull, you could do this:

var firstIssueDate = r["FISS"] as DateTime? ?? DateTime.MinValue;
var endIssueDate = r["EISS"] as DateTime? ?? DateTime.MinValue;

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:28

foreach (DataRow r in ds.Tables[0].Rows)
{
    string prodCode = r["PRD-CDE"].ToString();
    string statCode = r["STAT"].ToString();
    DateTime firstIssueDate = DateTime.Parse((r["FISS"]).ToString()); 
    DateTime endIssueDate = DateTime.Parse((r["EISS"]).ToString());
    if(endIssueDate > DateTime.Now)
    { /*do some thing...*/}
    else {/*user invalid...*/}
}

This should compile and may work for you. Though it is certainly not performing any error checking that you should do for production code. Also look into DateTime.TryParse and you may to look into adding a IFormatProvider to ensure the format is parsed as expected.

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:39

1

First of all, do r["FISS"].GetType() and print it to console (or pause and look at it in the debugger). If it says it's a String, then most of the above advices will help. If it says something else, please come back and update your question.

answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:39

Andriy Volkov

18,653
9
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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:20

0

As a side answer, you could use also the static function Convert.ToDateTime

answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:20

Jhonny D. Cano -Leftware-

17,663
14
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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:27

0

DateTime.Parse(r["FISS"].ToString()) is the way to go, but it throws a "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime" error. Could you show the actual string in the r["FISS"] column, it might be a internationalisation problem....

answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:27

Colin

10,630
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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 09 '09 at 20:36

If you have a DateTime string with a special format (not any standard .NET DateTime format) that needs to be converted to .NET DateTime type, you can use DateTime.ParseExact() method.

Please see the MSDN document for more details including examples.

If you have multiple formats to parse, try DateTime.ParseExact Method (String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles)

Retrieving a DateTime value from a DataRow (C#)

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