.NET Formatting Strings

formatting strings

Example	Output
String.Format(“–{0,10}–“, “test”);	—      test–
String.Format(“–{0,-10}–“, “test”);	–test      —

formatting numbers

Specifier	Type	Format	Output (double 1.2345)	Output (int -12345)
c	Currency	{0:c}	$1.23	-$12,345.00
d	Decimal (whole number)	{0:d}	System.FormatException	-12345
e	Exponent/scientific	{0:e}	1.234500e+000	-1.234500e+004
f	Fixed point	{0:f}	1.23	-12345.00
g	General	{0:g}	1.2345	-12345
n	Number	{0:n}	1.23	-12,345.00
r	Round trippable	{0:r}	1.23	System.FormatException
x	Hexadecimal	{0:x4}	System.FormatException	ffffcfc7

custom number formatting

Specifier	Type	Format	Output (double 1234.56)
0	Zero placeholder	{0:00.000}	1234.560
#	Digit placeholder	{0:#.##}	1234.56
.	Decimal point placeholder	{0:0.0}	1234.6
,	Thousand separator	{0:0,0}	1,235
%	Percentage	{0:0%}	123456%

Group separator

String.Format(“{0:$#,##0.00;($#,##0.00);Nothing}”, value);

This will output “$1,240.00” if passed 1243.56.  It will output the same format bracketed if the value is negative “($1,240.00)”, and will output the string “Nothing” if the number is zero.

date formatting

Specifier	Type	Output (June 8, 1970 12:30:59)
d	Short date	08/06/1970
D	Long date	08 June 1970
t	Short time	12:30
T	Long time	12:30:59
f	Full date and time	08 June 1970 12:30
F	Full date and time (long)	08 June 1970 12:30:59
g	Default date and time	08/06/1970 12:30
G	Default date and time (long)	08/06/1970 12:30:59
M	Day/Month	8 June
r	RFC1123 date string	Mon, 08 June 1970 12:30:59 GMT
s	Sortable date/time	1970-06-08T12:30:59
u	Universal time, local timezone	1970-06-08 12:30:59Z
Y	Month/Year	June 1970

custom date formatting

Specifier	Type	Output (June 8, 1970 12:30:59)
dd	Day	08
ddd	Short day name	Mon
dddd	Full day name	Monday
hh	2 digit hour	12
HH	2 digit hour (24 hour)	12
mm	2 digit minute	30
MM	Month	06
MMM	Short month name	Jun
MMMM	Month name	June
ss	Seconds	59
tt	AM/PM	PM
yy	2 digit year	70
yyyy	4 digit year	1970
:	Separator, e.g. {0:hh:mm:ss}	12:30:59
/	Separator, e.g. {0:dd/MM/yyyy}	08/06/1970

DateTime to simple recognized string (Facebook time format)

// DateAndTime Helper
public static string GetDateAndTimeFormNow(this HtmlHelper helper, string datetime)
{
    string value = string.Empty;

    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(datetime))
    {
        DateTime d1 = DateTime.Now;
        DateTime d2 = Convert.ToDateTime(datetime);

        TimeSpan t = d1 - d2;

        if (t.TotalDays >= 2)
            value = Math.Round(t.TotalDays, 0).ToString() + " days ago.";
        else if (t.TotalDays >= 1)
            value = "a day ago.";
        else if (t.TotalHours >= 2)
            value = Math.Round(t.TotalHours, 0).ToString() + " hours ago.";
        else if (t.TotalHours >= 1)
            value = "an hour ago.";
        else if (t.TotalMinutes >= 2)
            value = Math.Round(t.TotalMinutes, 0).ToString() + " minutes ago.";
        else
            value = "a minute ago.";
    }

    return value;
}