Question

I know we can do the following to show AM PM for a Time.

    String.Format("{0:t}", dt);  // "4:05 PM" 

What if I want to show A for AM and P for PM. Is there a format for that?

Answer 1

Another solution would be to use the System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo class which allows you to specify how you want your AM/PM to be formatted:

DateTimeFormatInfo timeFormat = new DateTimeFormatInfo();
timeFormat.ShortTimePattern = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortTimePattern;
timeFormat.AMDesignator = "A";
timeFormat.PMDesignator = "P";

// Both of these are the same:
string a = DateTime.Now.ToString("t", timeFormat);
string b = String.Format(timeFormat, "{0:t}", DateTime.Now);

You can do completely custom stuff with it:

timeFormat.AMDesignator = "cookies";
timeFormat.PMDesignator = "bagels";

Example output for 4:05 PM:

4:05 bagels