DateTime ToString format that can be used in a filename or extension

Question

I want to add a timestamp to filenames as files are created but most of the DateTime methods I ve tried output something with spaces and slashes  For instance   Debug WriteLine DateTime Now ToString         lt -- 9 19 2012 1 41 46 PM Debug WriteLine DateTime Now ToShortTimeString         lt -- 1 41 PM Debug WriteLine DateTime Now ToShortDateString         lt -- 9 19 2012 Debug WriteLine DateTime Now ToFileTime         lt -- 129925501061462806   ToFileTime   works but is not exactly human-readable  How can I format the output to a human-readable timestamp with date and time that can be used in a filename or extension  Prefereably something like 2011-19-9--13-45-30

User · Accepted Answer

You can use this   DateTime Now ToString  yyyy-dd-M--HH-mm-ss

User · Answer

I would use the ISO 8601 format  without separators   DateTime Now ToString  yyyyMMddTHHmmss

User · Answer

Personally I like it this way   DateTime Now ToString  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss     Because it distinguishes between the date and the time

User · Answer

Using interpolation string  amp  format specifier  var filename     quot  DateTime Now yyyy dd M HH-mm-ss  quot   Example Output for January 1st  2020 at 10 40 45AM   2020 28 01 10-40-45   Or if you want a standard date format  var filename     quot  DateTime Now yyyy M dd HH-mm-ss  quot    2020 01 28 10-40-45   Note  this feature is available in C  6 and later versions of the language

User · Answer

I have a similar situation but I want a consistent way to be able to use DateTime Parse from the filename as well  so I went with  DateTime Now ToString  s   Replace               lt -- 2016-10-25T16 50 35   When I want to parse  I can simply reverse the Replace call   This way I don t have to type in any yymmdd stuff or guess what formats DateTime Parse allows

User · Answer

The below list of time format specifiers most commonly used       dd -- day of the month  from 01 through 31       MM -- month  from 01 through 12       yyyy -- year as a four-digit number       hh -- hour  using a 12-hour clock from 01 to 12       mm -- minute  from 00 through 59       ss -- second  from 00 through 59       HH -- hour  using a 24-hour clock from 00 to 23       tt -- AM PM designator    Using the above you will be able to form a unique name to your file name   Here i have provided example    string fileName    fileName     DateTime Now ToString  MM-dd-yyyy hh-mm-ss-tt       pdf     OR  If you don t prefer to use symbols you can try this also    string fileName    fileName     DateTime Now ToString  MMddyyyyhhmmsstt       pdf     Hope this helps to someone now or in future

User · Answer

You can try with  var result   DateTime Now ToString  yyyy-MM-d--HH-mm-ss

User · Answer

You can make a path for your file as bellow   string path    fileName-  DateTime Now ToString  yyyy-dd-M--HH-mm-ss       txt

[c#] DateTime.ToString() format that can be used in a filename or extension?

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