Remove '0' (Number) from DateTime Month and Day (String)

Question

Can anybody tell me the best approach or solution on how I would do the following?

I have a DateTime (as String) in following format:

string test = "21.12.2013";

How could I now remove all zero's from the month and day but still 'keep' the DateTime Logic:

//Example 1
string input = "06.10.2013" // 6th October
string output = "6.10.2013" //only remove '0' from the day

//Example 2
string input = "01.09.2012" // 1st September
string output = "1.9.2012" //remove from month and day

//Example 3
string input = "20.10.2011" // 20th October
string output = "20.10.2011" //should (must) stay!

I can also parse to DateTime if that would be make it easier but yeah I hope you got my idea...

Any help appreciated!

That's display and doesn't influence the way it's saved. Look for your correct representation here. — Jeroen Vannevel
– Jeroen Vannevel, Commented Dec 21, 2013 at 0:33

MarcinJuraszek · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-21 00:33:07Z

5

Parsing your string into DateTime and getting it back to string using ToString with desired patter seems to be the easiest way to go:

public static string GetRidOfZeros(string input)
{
    var dt = DateTime.ParseExact(input, "dd.MM.yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
    return dt.ToString("d.M.yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}

Little testing, with your sample data:

var inputs = new List<string> { "06.10.2013", "01.09.2012", "20.10.2011" };
var outputs = new List<string> { "6.10.2013", "1.9.2012","20.10.2011" };

if(outputs.SequenceEqual(inputs.Select(d => GetRidOfZeros(d))))
    Console.WriteLine("Output is OK");
else
    Console.WriteLine("Collections does not match.");

Prints Output is OK.

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 0:33

MarcinJuraszek

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1 Comment

eMi Over a year ago

Thx very much, I totally forgot bout ToString("d.M.yyyy") :(

AD.Net · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-21 00:32:52Z

4

DateTime.Parse(input).ToString("d.M.yyyy")

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 0:32

AD.Net

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Comments

Ant P · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-21 00:33:17Z

2

As you said, parsing to DateTime first would probably make things easier, since then you can just use:

myDateTime.ToString("d.M.yyyy");

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 0:33

Ant P

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Kenneth · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-21 00:34:23Z

2

When you parse it you can use ToString to format it any way you like:

var date = "06.10.2013";

DateTime parsed = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "dd.MM.yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

var noZerosHere = parsed.ToString("d.MM.yyyy");

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 0:34

Kenneth

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Alex Walker · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-21 00:44:22Z

-1

A decent "catch-all" method (that will work not just on DateTime but ANY kind of string) would be to split the string up, take out leading zeroes and then put the pieces back together again.

string input = "01.09.2012";
string[] values = input.Split(".");
string[] modifiedValues = values.Select(x => x.TrimStart('0');
string output = String.Join(".", modifiedValues);

You can adjust the delimiters for different representations of DateTime, e.g. those that use slashes (01/09/2012) or are written in a different order.

edited Dec 21, 2013 at 0:44

answered Dec 21, 2013 at 0:36

Alex Walker

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3 Comments

Kenneth Over a year ago

Why on earth would you do that? Don't you trust .NET's built-in DateTime?

Alex Walker Over a year ago

IMO it's about "removing leading zeroes from substrings" as opposed to "reformatting a DateTime". I'd say it was nice to give a pure string manipulation answer, even though in this particular case ParseExact and ToString do the job too.

Kenneth Over a year ago

The title says "Remove '0' (Number) from DateTime Month and Day" so it is about reformatting a DateTime. Although your method probably works it's not really good advice.

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