Is it possible to center the text of DateTimePicker?

Question

In my Windows Form Application written in C#, I have a DateTimePicker control. I want to center the text part of the control, but is it possible? My current one has its text at the left, giving a lot of space on the right side.

I tried

myDateTimePicker.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter;

but it gave the error:

'System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePicker' does not contain a definition for 'TextAlign' and no extension method 'TextAlign' accepting a first argument of type 'System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePicker' could be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

I could not find any property that seemed to work, and I could not find the solution anywhere on the Internet either. Is this not possible at all?

Answer 1

You can always override the OnPaint handler by subclassing DateTimePicker:

public class CenteredDateTimePicker : DateTimePicker
{
    public CenteredDateTimePicker()
    {
        SetStyle(ControlStyles.UserPaint, true);
    }

    protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
    {
        e.Graphics.DrawString(Text, Font, new SolidBrush(ForeColor), ClientRectangle, new StringFormat
        {
            Alignment = StringAlignment.Center,
            LineAlignment = StringAlignment.Center
        });
    }
}

However, the scrollbar is not drawn here, so you might have to improvise somehow...

Unfortunately, you can't find the definition of DateTimePicker.OnPaint on Reference Source.