[c#] Append TimeStamp to a File Name

I have come across this problem several times in which I would like to have multiple versions of the same file in the same directory. The way I have been doing it using C# is by adding a time stamp to the file name with something like this DateTime.Now.ToString().Replace('/', '-').Replace(':', '.'). Is there a better way to do this?

I prefer to use:

string result = "myFile_" + DateTime.Now.ToFileTime() + ".txt";

What does ToFileTime() do?

Converts the value of the current DateTime object to a Windows file time.

public long ToFileTime()

A Windows file time is a 64-bit value that represents the number of 100-nanosecond intervals that have elapsed since 12:00 midnight, January 1, 1601 A.D. (C.E.) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Windows uses a file time to record when an application creates, accesses, or writes to a file.

Source: MSDN documentation - DateTime.ToFileTime Method

you can use:

Stopwatch.GetTimestamp();

Perhaps appending DateTime.Now.Ticks instead, is a tiny bit faster since you won't be creating 3 strings and the ticks value will always be unique also.

You can use below instead:

DateTime.Now.Ticks

For Current date and time as the name for a file on the file system. Now call the string.Format method, and combine it with DateTime.Now, for a method that outputs the correct string based on the date and time.

using System;
using System.IO;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        //
        // Write file containing the date with BIN extension
        //
        string n = string.Format("text-{0:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin",
            DateTime.Now);
        File.WriteAllText(n, "abc");
    }
}

Output :

C:\Users\Fez\Documents\text-2020-01-08_05-23-13-PM.bin

"text-{0:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin"

text- The first part of the output required Files will all start with text-

{0: Indicates that this is a string placeholder The zero indicates the index of the parameters inserted here

yyyy- Prints the year in four digits followed by a dash This has a "year 10000" problem

MM- Prints the month in two digits

dd_ Prints the day in two digits followed by an underscore

hh- Prints the hour in two digits

mm- Prints the minute, also in two digits

ss- As expected, it prints the seconds

tt Prints AM or PM depending on the time of day