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c#datetimedbnullidatareader

How to convert a nullable datetime value to string using data reader?

I'm reading back a nullable datetime using the IDataReader interface. So far my previous column reads are working as expected.

Except for this column ["Implementation End Timestamp"] where I try to read back a nullable date time, convert it to string and assign it to a string property named Implementation_End_String.

So this is what I tried. First Reading back the DateTime? value checking for null then attempting a convert toString() if not null.

But this assignment isn't allowed due to their being "no explicit conversion between string and DateTime?":

Implementation_End_String = dataReader["Implementation End Timestamp"] == DBNull.Value ? (DateTime?)null : Convert.ToDateTime(dataReader["Implementation End Timestamp"]).ToString("d-MMMM-yyyy"), //show full month name

I think I need to get the value of the DateTime to call toString() on it.

Question:

How can I convert the read back DateTime? value to a string type?

Solution

  • Every Nullable<T> type has GetValueOrDefault method. You can use this method to retrieve value or default value of T (in your case it would be DateTime.MinValue) if there is no value. This method will return plain DateTime object so you can invoke any ToString() methods on it.