DateTime.ToString()

[timewaster]

I am using the C# .NET Datetime class DateTime and taking the default when converting to a string DateTime.ToString().

When i run it under a user i get the U.S. format - month then day, but when i run it on the SAME machine started up as a service, i get the European format - day then month?

why is that? when i run it under services, it is running under a different user. Could that be why? I thought the DateTime default locale was machine based rather than user based?

[mmetzger]

Not sure about the details regarding the locale but your best bet may be to define the exact format you want in the ToString() method.

[timewaster]

this is exactly what i did.
but i was curious if the default is tied to the user or by machine.

[boudino]

It could be. Under service, there is no GUI, so no UI culture is set. If the format of the date matter, it is stronly recommended to specify a format string and a culture if calling ToString().

The simplies way how to to be sure in which format the date will be is this:

DateTime.Now.ToString(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

InvariantCulture is associated with the English language but not with any country/region.

[dannystommen]

You could also do the next thing

DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
MessageBox.Show(dt.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"));

gives a message that looks like 25-09-2008

DateTime dt = DateTime.Now;
MessageBox.Show(dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy"));

gives a message that looks like 09-25-2008

[toraj58]

try this:

            DateTime datetime = DateTime.Now;
            Console.WriteLine(datetime.ToString("MMM dd yyyy"));

output:
Sep 25 2008

Touraj Ebrahimi [toraj_e] [at] [yahoo] [dot] [com]

[Arjay]

To unravel the mystery just dump the CultureInfo settings to the event log when running as a service or to the console or file if running under a user account.

[timewaster]

how do i dump the cultureInfo info? what is the C# .NET class/method to do this?

[Arjay]

Use Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture or Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture to retrieve the current CultureInfo. See CultureInfo in Msdn on how to dump the values.