Question

How would you re-write the following, so it’s a bit easier on the eyes?

Func<DateTime, String> formatter = null;

formatter = new Func<DateTime, String>(d =>
{
    var r = "";

    foreach (var i in new[] { d.Day, d.Month, d.Year })
    {
        if (i < 10) r += "0";

        r += i.ToString();
    }

    return r;
});

Answer 1

I’d rewrite it as:

Func<DateTime, String> formatter = d => d.ToString("ddMMyyyy", 
    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Only difference here is that for dates before 1000AD, this will pad to 4 digits instead of 2…

EDIT: As noted in comments, this doesn’t replicate the bug in the original code – it would format (say) a month of 5 as “055”. The simplest way to fix this in the original code would be:

if (i < 10) r += "0";
r += i;

(But I’d prefer my code anyway 🙂