Question

I am a new ASP.NET developer and I am facing a problem with inserting some data to the database. I have a form for creating Event. The filled data should be inserted to the database. I have the following database design:

Columns: ID, Title, Description, StartDateTime, EndDateTime, IsActive
(StartDateTime and EndDateTime are DateTime data types)

When I tried to insert data, I faced the following problem and I don’t know why:

My code-behind (C#):

protected void submitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        string connString = "Data Source=localhost\\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=RegistrationSysDB;Integrated Security=True;";
        string insertCommand = "INSERT INTO Events (Title, Description, Location, StartDateTime, EndDateTime) values (@Title, @Description, @Location, @StartDateTime, @EndDateTime)";

        string title = txtTitle.Text;
        string description = txtDescription.Text;
        string location = txtLocation.Text;
        string startDateTime = start_DateTime.ToString();
        string endDateTime = end_DateTime.ToString();

        using(SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connString))
        {
            //open DB Connection
            conn.Open();

            using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(insertCommand, conn))
            {
                cmd.Parameters.Clear();
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Title", title);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Description", description);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Location", location);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@StartDateTime", startDateTime);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@EndDateTime", endDateTime);
                cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
            }

            conn.Close();
        }

        MultiView1.SetActiveView(ViewConfirm);
    }

My ASP.NET code:

<div id="contactform">
                <fieldset>
                        <label for="title">
                            Title</label>
                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtTitle" CssClass="text-input" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                        <br />
                        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator1" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please enter a subject for your message"
                            ControlToValidate="txtTitle"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

                        <label for="description">
                            Description</label>
                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtDescription" TextMode="MultiLine" CssClass="textarea" Rows="6" cols="50"
                            runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                        <br />
                        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator2" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please enter your message"
                            ControlToValidate="txtDescription"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

                        <label for="location">
                            Location</label>
                        <asp:TextBox ID="txtLocation" CssClass="text-input" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                        <br />
                        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator5" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please enter your message"
                            ControlToValidate="txtLocation"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

                        <label for="start_DateTime">
                            Start Date & Time</label>
                        <asp:TextBox ID="start_DateTime" CssClass="textarea" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                        <%--<ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender ID="CalendarExtender1" runat="server" TargetControlID="start_DateTime" 
                                                        PopupPosition="Right">
                        </ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender>--%>
                        <br />
                        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator3" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please enter your message"
                            ControlToValidate="start_DateTime"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

                        <label for="end_DateTime">
                            End Date & Time</label>
                        <asp:TextBox ID="end_DateTime" CssClass="textarea" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
                        <%--<ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender ID="CalendarExtender2" runat="server" TargetControlID="end_DateTime" 
                                                        Format=" PopupPosition="Right">
                        </ajaxToolkit:CalendarExtender>--%>
                        <br />
                        <asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID="RequiredFieldValidator4" runat="server" ErrorMessage="Please enter your message"
                            ControlToValidate="end_DateTime"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

                        <asp:Button ID="submitButton"  runat="server" CssClass="button" 
                            Text="Create &rarr;" onclick="submitButton_Click" />
              </fieldset>
            </div>

FYI, I am using jQuery UI DateTimePicker for inserting the StartDateTime and EndDateTime.

So how can I insert the data with DateTime type into the database?

UPDATE #1:

I changed my code to the following:

protected void submitButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
        string connString = "Data Source=localhost\\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=RegistrationSysDB;Integrated Security=True;";
        string insertCommand = "INSERT INTO Events (Title, Description, Location, StartDateTime, EndDateTime) values (@Title, @Description, @Location, @StartDateTime, @EndDateTime)";

        string title = txtTitle.Text;
        string description = txtDescription.Text;
        string location = txtLocation.Text;
        string startDateTime = start_DateTime.ToString();
        string endDateTime = end_DateTime.ToString();

        using(SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connString))
        {
            //open DB Connection
            conn.Open();

            using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(insertCommand, conn))
            {
                cmd.Parameters.Clear();
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Title", title);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Description", description);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Location", location);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@StartDateTime", "'" + startDateTime + "'");
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@StartDateTime", "'" + endDateTime + "'");
                cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
            }

            conn.Close();
        }

        MultiView1.SetActiveView(ViewConfirm);
    }

and I got the following error:

Answer 1

You’re calling ToString on the textbox instead of retrieving the text from it. So the value that is getting passed to the database is the string "System.Web.UI.WebControls.TextBox" instead of the actual date/time.

Try replacing this:

string startDateTime = start_DateTime.ToString();
string endDateTime = end_DateTime.ToString();

With this:

string startDateTime = start_DateTime.Text;
string endDateTime = end_DateTime.Text;

The first code-behind you had (before the update) should work with this change… at least it did for me. 🙂