Question

I want to format the DateTime displayed in TextBoxes without the time and to this format: 01 Jan, 2011 instead of the default 01/01/2011 for both display and edit scenarios.

I am already using the following template for DateTime in order to use datepicker. Can I somehow include formatting here?

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<System.DateTime?>" %>
<%: Html.TextBox("",ViewData.TemplateInfo.FormattedModelValue, new { @class = "text-box single-line" }) %>

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

is ViewData.TemplateInfo.FormattedModelValue a datetime object?

to get the format you want out of a DateTime object use the following:

var now = DateTime.Now;
var formattedDate = now.ToString("dd MMM, yyyy");

this should work

<%= 
var theDate = Model.HasValue ? Model.Value.ToString("dd MMM, yyyy") : DateTime.Now.ToString("dd MMM, yyyy");


Html.TextBox("", theDate, new { @class = "text-box single-line" }) %>

The reason you are getting an error when you call Model.ToString("dd MMM, yyyy") is because it’s a Nullable object, and it’s ToString() method doesn’t accept any parameters. The value of the model is a DateTime object, which does accept parameters.