C# date formatting is losing slash separators

Question

If I do this in C#:

Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString("ddd M/dd/yy"));

I would expect output like this:

Wed 6/15/11

But it actually outputs this:

Wed 6 15 11

Why are the slashes disappearing? Is there a way to prevent this and have the date outputted in the expected format?

I get the slashes with your format string. What is the culture you are running under? — Oded, Jun 15 '11 at 17:59
I copied your code and ran it with Snippet Compiler. It output 'Wed 6/15/11'. — Dave Ferguson, Jun 15 '11 at 17:59
This issue only appears to happen in Windows 7 when you change your short date format to "ddd M/dd/yy". — Jon Tackabury, Jun 15 '11 at 18:01
Nothing to do with Windows 7 and everything to do with the _Culture_ you are running the program under. — Oded, Jun 15 '11 at 18:08
Is there a way to implement this using string.Format()? The slashes are replaced when I use `string.Format("{0:M/d/yyyy H:mm:ss tt}", myDate)` and `string.Format("{0:G}", myDate)` — JackAce, Mar 07 '17 at 17:36

score 96 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 15 '11 at 18:04

96

Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString("ddd M/dd/yy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
            Console.ReadLine();

try the above

answered Jun 15 '11 at 18:04

David

3

This appears to work, why is the CultureInfo.InvariantCulture required here? – Jon Tackabury Jun 15 '11 at 18:04
16

@Jon - Because if a `CultureInfo` is not specified, the current culture will be used. If this is a culture that doesn't use slashes as separators in dates (and the format string specifies the date separator to be a `/`, that is replaced by whatever the actual culture date separator is). – Oded Jun 15 '11 at 18:07
1

based on http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.globalization.cultureinfo.invariantculture.aspx I would assume that it appears that your cultureinfo is changing the "/" to " " – David Jun 15 '11 at 18:08
My Default culture considers dash as default date separator, even if Region Format to set to uses slash "/" as default date separator, which is English (US). Am I missing anything ? Please suggest I am using windows 11, Timezone IST +5:30. – Himen Suthar Apr 05 '23 at 09:05

score 32 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 03 '19 at 09:25

32

The default behavior of the "/" (slash) in a format argument is to use the current's culture date separator.

To force the "/" (slash), you must precede it with a "\" (backslash).

Ex.: "yyyy\\/MM\\/dd" will always display a date like "2015/07/02" independent of the current culture in use.

edited Apr 03 '19 at 09:25

Métoule

answered Jul 02 '15 at 13:20

BaRtEr

Very nice detail :) using your solution in conjunction with "Culture.Invariant" will guarantee at 100% that your date has the exact format that you specified :) – Pedro Simões May 30 '16 at 15:31

score 32 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 15 '11 at 18:14

32

You could also use

Console.WriteLine(dateTime.ToString("ddd M'/'dd'/'yy"));

That's a possible solution if you're not using the invariant culture as mentioned in other answers here.

answered Jun 15 '11 at 18:14

Norbert

Thanks! This fixes windows region settings too. https://imgur.com/a/8j8aLik – Luke Schoen Sep 26 '19 at 20:39

3 Answers3