Question

I have a little app that connects to an Oracle database that stores course completions for a training class. The database has employee names, employee numbers, date the course was completed, and the name of the course. I have code that returns one row, shown below:

            String strPerIdNo = textBox1.Text;
            String strQuery = "PER_ID_NO = " + "'" + strPerIdNo + "'";
            DataRow[] foundRows;
            foundRows = dataSet1.DataTable1.Select(strQuery);

The row contains an array of 5 elements:

• [0] – System.DateTime object
• [1] – String object
• [2] – Int object
• [3] – String object
• [4] – String object

I want to instantiate a DateTime object from the DateTime object in the array at [0], but I cannot figure out how. I want to display a message that contains the emp name and date they completed the course.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Okay, first, you’re not instantiating anything here, because the DateTime you want already exists (or else, it wouldn’t be in the DataRow!). In addition, DateTime is a value type, not a reference type; it’s not normal to think of instantiating a value type; you just initialize or copy them.

What you are looking for is to get the value of the DateTime element in your DataRow. Here are the steps:

//step 0: make sure there's at least one DataRow in your results
if (foundRows.Length < 1) { /* handle it */ }

//step 1: get the first DataRow in your results, since you're sure there's one
DataRow row = foundRows[0];

//step 2: get the DateTime out of there
object possibleDate = row["TheNameOfTheDateColumn"];

//step 3: deal with what happens if it's null in the database
if (possibleDate == DBNull.Value) { /* handle it */ }

//step 4: possibleDate isn't a DateTime - let's turn it into one.
DateTime date = (DateTime)possibleDate;