[c#] Date formatting in WPF datagrid

I want to change is the date column from a format "DD/MM/YYYY HH:MM:SS" to "DD.MM.YYYY".

  <DataGrid Name="dgBuchung" AutoGenerateColumns="True" 
            ItemsSource="{Binding}" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" >
  <ab:DataGridTextColumn Header="Fecha Entrada" Width="110"  
       Binding="{Binding date, StringFormat={}{0:dd/MM/yyyy}}" IsReadOnly="True" />
                        
</DataGrid>
                                      

Unfortunately that code throws an XMLParseException.

First of all, is this way of solution possible while using AutoGenerateColumns? If no, how else can I try to handle this?

If yes, what is the problem with the code above?

If your bound property is DateTime, then all you need is

Binding={Property, StringFormat=d}

Very late to the party here but in case anyone else stumbles across this page...

You can do it by setting the AutoGeneratingColumn handler in XAML:

<DataGrid AutoGeneratingColumn="OnAutoGeneratingColumn"  ..etc.. />

And then in code behind do something like this:

private void OnAutoGeneratingColumn(object sender, DataGridAutoGeneratingColumnEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.PropertyType == typeof(System.DateTime))
        (e.Column as DataGridTextColumn).Binding.StringFormat = "dd/MM/yyyy";
}

This is a very old question, but I found a new solution, so I wrote about it.

First of all, is this way of solution possible while using AutoGenerateColumns?

Yes, that can be done with AttachedProperty as follows.

<DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="True" 
   local:DataGridOperation.DateTimeFormatAutoGenerate="yy-MM-dd"
   ItemsSource="{Binding}" />

AttachedProperty

There are two AttachedProperty defined that allow you to specify two formats. DateTimeFormatAutoGenerate for DateTime and TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerate for TimeSpan.

class DataGridOperation
{
    public static string GetDateTimeFormatAutoGenerate(DependencyObject obj) => (string)obj.GetValue(DateTimeFormatAutoGenerateProperty);
    public static void SetDateTimeFormatAutoGenerate(DependencyObject obj, string value) => obj.SetValue(DateTimeFormatAutoGenerateProperty, value);
    public static readonly DependencyProperty DateTimeFormatAutoGenerateProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("DateTimeFormatAutoGenerate", typeof(string), typeof(DataGridOperation),
            new PropertyMetadata(null, (d, e) => AddEventHandlerOnGenerating<DateTime>(d, e)));

    public static string GetTimeSpanFormatAutoGenerate(DependencyObject obj) => (string)obj.GetValue(TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerateProperty);
    public static void SetTimeSpanFormatAutoGenerate(DependencyObject obj, string value) => obj.SetValue(TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerateProperty, value);
    public static readonly DependencyProperty TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerateProperty =
        DependencyProperty.RegisterAttached("TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerate", typeof(string), typeof(DataGridOperation),
            new PropertyMetadata(null, (d, e) => AddEventHandlerOnGenerating<TimeSpan>(d, e)));

    private static void AddEventHandlerOnGenerating<T>(DependencyObject d, DependencyPropertyChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        if (!(d is DataGrid dGrid))
            return;

        if ((e.NewValue is string format))
            dGrid.AutoGeneratingColumn += (o, e) => AddFormat_OnGenerating<T>(e, format);
    }

    private static void AddFormat_OnGenerating<T>(DataGridAutoGeneratingColumnEventArgs e, string format)
    {
        if (e.PropertyType == typeof(T))
            (e.Column as DataGridTextColumn).Binding.StringFormat = format;
    }
}

How to use

View

<Window
   x:Class="DataGridAutogenerateCustom.MainWindow"
   xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
   xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
   xmlns:local="clr-namespace:DataGridAutogenerateCustom"
   Width="400" Height="250">
   <Window.DataContext>
      <local:MainWindowViewModel />
   </Window.DataContext>
   <StackPanel>
      <TextBlock Text="DEFAULT FORMAT" />
      <DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding Dates}" />

      <TextBlock Margin="0,30,0,0" Text="CUSTOM FORMAT" />
      <DataGrid
         local:DataGridOperation.DateTimeFormatAutoGenerate="yy-MM-dd"
         local:DataGridOperation.TimeSpanFormatAutoGenerate="dd\-hh\-mm\-ss"
         ItemsSource="{Binding Dates}" />
   </StackPanel>
</Window>

ViewModel

public class MainWindowViewModel
{
    public DatePairs[] Dates { get; } = new DatePairs[]
    {
        new (){StartDate= new (2011,1,1), EndDate= new (2011,2,1) },
        new (){StartDate= new (2020,1,1), EndDate= new (2021,1,1) },
    };
}

public class DatePairs
{
    public DateTime StartDate { get; set; }
    public DateTime EndDate { get; set; }
    public TimeSpan Span => EndDate - StartDate;
}

demo_wpf_datagrid

first select datagrid and then go to properties find Datagrid_AutoGeneratingColumn and the double click And then use this code

   Datagrid_AutoGeneratingColumn(object sender, DataGridAutoGeneratingColumnEventArgs e)
            {
                if (e.PropertyName == "Your column name")
                    (e.Column as DataGridTextColumn).Binding.StringFormat = "dd/MMMMMMMMM/yyyy";
                if (e.PropertyName == "Your column name")
                    (e.Column as DataGridTextColumn).Binding.StringFormat = "dd/MMMMMMMMM/yyyy";
            }

I try it it works on WPF

I know the accepted answer is quite old, but there is a way to control formatting with AutoGeneratColumns :

First create a function that will trigger when a column is generated :

<DataGrid x:Name="dataGrid" AutoGeneratedColumns="dataGrid_AutoGeneratedColumns" Margin="116,62,10,10"/>

Then check if the type of the column generated is a DateTime and just change its String format to "d" to remove the time part :

private void DataGrid_AutoGeneratingColumn(object sender, DataGridAutoGeneratingColumnEventArgs e)
        {
            if(YourColumn == typeof(DateTime))
            {
                e.Column.ClipboardContentBinding.StringFormat = "d";
            }
        }

Binding="{Binding YourColumn ,StringFormat='yyyy-MM-dd'}"