Format dates in a databound repeater

[neilx]

If I get a date from my database, how do I output it in a standard way in a databound control like a repeater:

Code: Select all

<ItemTemplate>
<asp:Label ID=\"aDate\" runat=\"server\" Text='<%# Eval(\"aDate\") %>' />
</ItemTemplate>

aDate.ToString(\"yyyy-MM-dd\") works fine in code behind, but not on an Eval-ed item.

This is a site-wide issue for me in that I want all dates from my database to be presented in iso format (mostly without the time), so doing it centrally would be good.

[neilx]

I have found the StringFormat property in the EasyObject.cs which is actual the Date Format. It is public so I can set it to \"yyyy-MM-dd\" to achieve what I want - and then use

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Eval(\"s_aDate\")

[neilx]

I have what seems to be a good solution for this that requires a patch for EasyObject.cs:

Change the property StringFormat to:

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public string StringFormat = CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern;

There is a rogue ToString(\"MM/dd/yyyy\") in GetItemString() which I guess needs to be changed to use this.StringFormat.

Then either set the server ShortDate pattern as you want or in the application create a clone of the CurrentUICulture and set the ShortDatePattern there before resetting the current thread's CurrentUICulture:

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CultureInfo vNewCulture = (CultureInfo);
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture.Clone();
vNewCulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = \"yyyy-MM-dd\";
vNewCulture.DateTimeFormat.DateSeparator = \"-\";
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = vNewCulture;


Kudos to Peter Blum for this last piece of code:
http://forums.asp.net/p/1223734/2190227.aspx