Question

I can’t find a way to find all the dates(strings) less then at least one year from now.

i keep in database Date Field strings like “DateTime.toShortDateString()” and i need to compare now.

it looks like month/day/year = 9/6/2011

its need to be lower at least one year from DateTime.now.

i did this and it doesnt return all dates needed just few.

        DateTime Date = DateTime.Now;
        int Year = Date.Year;
        Year -= 1;
        int Month = Date.Month;
        string MonthYear = Month.ToString() + "%" + Year.ToString();
        string Query = "SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE DateOrder < @STU ";

           SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(Query, con);
                cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@STU", MonthYear);

This is my problem

Answer 1

Modify your database schema and store dates as char(10) in ISO 8601 format (yyyy-mm-dd) or the ISO 8601 compact form (yyyymmdd).

• http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

That gives you proper collation and proper comparison. Further…DateTime.Parse() and TryParse() will both accept that format regardless of culture (well..one exception: Saudi Arabia, ar-SA. Go figure). DateTime.ToString("Y") orstring.Format( “{0:Y}” , someDateTimeInstance )` will give you the ISO 8601 format.

Should be a simple update to your database.

Even better, if you’re using SQL Server 2008: store dates using the new datatype Date.