How to use DateTime in C#

using System;
class HelloWorld
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Storing date as String
        string dateString = "15/07/2020 06:30:45 PM";
        
        // Directly initializing date as DateTime variable
        DateTime date1 = new DateTime(2020, 7, 15, 18, 30, 45);
        // Parsing string to DateTime
        DateTime date2 = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        
        // Both dates output 07 15 20 18:30:45
        Console.WriteLine(date1.ToString("MM dd yy HH:mm:ss"));
        Console.WriteLine(date2.ToString("MM dd yy HH:mm:ss"));
        // Outputs Wednesday July, 2020 06:30:45 PM
        Console.WriteLine(date1.ToString("dddd MMMM, yyyy hh:mm:ss tt"));
        // Outputs 07/15/2020
        Console.WriteLine(date1.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy"));
        // Outputs 06:30:45 PM
        Console.WriteLine(date1.ToString("hh:mm:ss tt"));
    }
}

This example demonstrates how DateTime variables are initialized and then parsed to strings. Parsing to and from a string can be done by comparing the string to a user-defined format.

C# allows users to define their own format using strings. Different components of time are represented in the format as different strings. Some of these are:

d represents the day without a leading $0$ . It ranges from $1$ to $31$ .
dd represents the day with a leading $0$ . It ranges from $01$ to $31$ .
ddd represents an abbreviated name for a day like Mon or Tues.
dddd represents the full name for a day like Monday or Tuesday.
M is the month number without a leading zero. It ranges from $1$ to $12$ .
MM is the month number with a leading zero. It ranges from $01$ to $12$ .
MMM is an abbreviated name of a month like Jan or Feb.
MMMM is the full name of a month like January or February.
y is the year with a minimum of one digit. For instance, 2001 would be $1$ .
yy is the year with a minimum of two digits. For instance, 2001 would be $01$ .
yyy is the year with a minimum of three digits. For instance, 2001 would be $001$ .
yyyy is a four-digit representation of a year. For instance, 2001 would be $2001$ .
h is the hour in 12-hour notation without a leading zero. For example, 4 AM and 4 PM would both be $4$ .
hh is the hour in 12-hour notation with a leading zero. For example, 4 AM and 4 PM would both be $04$ .
H is the hour in 24-hour notation without a leading zero. For example, 4 AM and 4 PM would be $4$ and $16$ , respectively.
HH is the hour in 24-hour notation with a leading zero. For example, 4 AM and 4 PM would be $04$ and $16$ , respectively.
m is the minutes without a leading zero. It ranges from $0$ to $59$ .
mm is the minutes with a leading zero. It ranges from $00$ to $59$ .
s is the seconds without a leading zero. It ranges from $0$ to $60$ .
ss is the seconds with a leading zero. It ranges from $00$ to $60$ .
t is a single-character abbreviation for AM and PM. AM will become A and PM will become P.
tt is AM and PM.
K is the time-zone. For example, $+05:00$ .
z represents a minimum single-digit offset from the Coordinated Universal Timezone in hours. For example, $+5$ .
zz represents a minimum two-digit offset from the Coordinated Universal Timezone in hours. For example, $+05$ .
zz represents an offset from the Coordinated Universal Timezone in hours and minutes. For example, $+05:00$ .
f represents the decimals in a seconds value. The number of decimal digits is equal to the number of f’s in the format – there can be up to seven f’s. For example, fff may show $224$ for a seconds value of 2:22459 and $000$ for 2:00000.
F represents the non-zero decimals in a seconds value. The number of decimal digits is equal to the number of F’s in the format – there can be up to seven F’s. For example, FFF may show $224$ for a seconds value of 2:22459, but it would show nothing for 2:00000.

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How to use DateTime in C#

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