C# Date/Time Property

using System

DateTime.UtcNow;

Internationalization (I18n) Property Overview

The DateTime.UtcNow property is the DateTime object encapsulating the current, local date and time on this computer, expressed as the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

See Microsoft's MSDN online documentation for more information.

I18n Issues

It is also important to check code that uses the DateTime.UtcNow property to make sure that pieces of the current DateTime aren't being pasted together in a locale-specific way, as in the case of the incorrect usage example below.

Usage

The following example demonstrates the wrong way to use the DateTime.UtcNow property. This code example pieces together a display date in a fashion that is specific to U.S. English. It will be incorrect for even other English-speaking locales, such as the United Kingdom.

              string theMonth = DateTime.UtcNow.Month.ToString();
              string theDay = DateTime.UtcNow.Day.ToString();
              string theYear = DateTime.UtcNow.Year.ToString();
              string theTime = DateTime.UtcNow.Hour.ToString() + ":" +
              		DateTime.UtcNow.Minute.ToString() + ":" +
              		DateTime.UtcNow.Second.ToString();
              string displayTime = "Timestamp: " +
              		theTime + " " + theMonth + "/" + theDay + "/" + theYear;	
			  

The correct way to format a long date string such as the one attempted above, would be to call the ToString method on DateTime.UtcNow, passing in the D format string, which specifies a long date value. This way, if the correct culture has been set in the current thread, the date formatting rules of the user's culture will be used to generate the correct long-date string. Even better, it's done in a single line of code instead of eight:

              string displayTime = DateTime.UtcNow.ToString("D");