Question

I have data stored in a SQL database that I’m attempting to read into an ASP.NET MVC application. I can get the data just fine – but the datetimes are not translating into anything useful.

Here’s what I have so far (some data redacted as “…”):

    public JsonResult GetXYZByStatusJson()
    {
        var sqlConn = new SqlConnection(...);
        var command = new SqlCommand("...", sqlConn);

        command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
        command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@status", 0);

        sqlConn.Open();
        var sqlResult = command.ExecuteReader();

        var collection = new Collection<Object>();
        while (sqlResult.Read()) 
        {
            collection.Add(new XYZ(
                ...
                Convert.ToDateTime(sqlResult["DateSent"]),
                Convert.ToDateTime(sqlResult["DateDue"]),
                ...
                ));
        }

        sqlResult.Close();
        sqlConn.Close();

        return Json(collection);
    }

The resulting JSON is formatted fine, but the dates look like “\/Date(1294120800000)\/”

How do I properly cast the SQL datetime into a C# DateTime? Using .ToString() doesn’t have any affect.

Answer 1

There are nothing wrong with the conversion between Sql Server and C#.

The problem is how JsonResult formats the string.

The following SO question shows how you can process it at client side: How do I format a Microsoft JSON date?

The other way is to create your own alternative to JsonResult