MVC DateTime binding with incorrect date format

Question

Asp net-MVC now allows for implicit binding of DateTime objects  I have an action along the lines of  public ActionResult DoSomething DateTime startDate              This successfully converts a string from an ajax call into a DateTime  However  we use the date format dd MM yyyy  MVC is converting to MM dd yyyy  For example  submitting a call to the action with a string  09 02 2009  results in a DateTime of  02 09 2009 00 00 00   or September 2nd in our local settings   I don t want to roll my own model binder for the sake of a date format  But it seems needless to have to change the action to accept a string and then use DateTime Parse if MVC is capable of doing this for me   Is there any way to alter the date format used in the default model binder for DateTime  Shouldn t the default model binder use your localisation settings anyway

User · Answer

public object BindModel ControllerContext controllerContext  ModelBindingContext bindingContext        var str   controllerContext HttpContext Request QueryString bindingContext ModelName       if  string IsNullOrEmpty str   return null      var date   DateTime ParseExact str   dd MM yyyy   null       return date

User · Answer

I set the below config on my MVC4 and it works like a charm   lt globalization uiCulture  auto  culture  auto    gt

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public class DateTimeFilter   ActionFilterAttribute       public override void OnActionExecuting ActionExecutingContext filterContext                if  filterContext HttpContext Request RequestType     GET                          foreach  var parameter in filterContext ActionParameters                                var properties   parameter Value GetType   GetProperties                     foreach  var property in properties                                        Type type   Nullable GetUnderlyingType property PropertyType     property PropertyType                       if  property PropertyType    typeof System DateTime     property PropertyType    typeof DateTime                                                  DateTime dateTime                           if  DateTime TryParse filterContext HttpContext Request QueryString property Name   CultureInfo CurrentUICulture  DateTimeStyles None  out dateTime                               property SetValue parameter Value  dateTime null

User · Answer

It is also worth noting that even without creating your own model binder multiple different formats may be parsable  For instance in the US all the following strings are equivalent and automatically get bound to the same DateTime value    company press may 2001 202008  company press 2008-05-01  company press 05-01-2008  I d strongly suggest using yyyy-mm-dd because its a lot more portable  You really dont want to deal with handling multiple localized formats  If someone books a flight on 1st May instead of 5th January you re going to have big issues  NB  I m not clear exaclty if yyyy-mm-dd is universally parsed in all cultures so maybe someone who knows can add a comment

User · Answer

I ve been having the same issue with short date format binding to DateTime model properties  After looking at many different examples  not only concerning DateTime  I put together the follwing   using System  using System Globalization  using System Web Mvc   namespace YourNamespaceHere       public class CustomDateBinder   IModelBinder               public object BindModel ControllerContext controllerContext  ModelBindingContext bindingContext                        if  controllerContext    null                  throw new ArgumentNullException  controllerContext    controllerContext is null                 if  bindingContext    null                  throw new ArgumentNullException  bindingContext    bindingContext is null                  var value   bindingContext ValueProvider GetValue bindingContext ModelName                if  value    null                  throw new ArgumentNullException bindingContext ModelName                CultureInfo cultureInf    CultureInfo CultureInfo CurrentCulture Clone                cultureInf DateTimeFormat ShortDatePattern    dd MM yyyy                bindingContext ModelState SetModelValue bindingContext ModelName  value                try                               var date   value ConvertTo typeof DateTime   cultureInf                    return date                            catch  Exception ex                                bindingContext ModelState AddModelError bindingContext ModelName  ex                   return null                                     public class NullableCustomDateBinder   IModelBinder               public object BindModel ControllerContext controllerContext  ModelBindingContext bindingContext                        if  controllerContext    null                  throw new ArgumentNullException  controllerContext    controllerContext is null                 if  bindingContext    null                  throw new ArgumentNullException  bindingContext    bindingContext is null                  var value   bindingContext ValueProvider GetValue bindingContext ModelName                if  value    null  return null               CultureInfo cultureInf    CultureInfo CultureInfo CurrentCulture Clone                cultureInf DateTimeFormat ShortDatePattern    dd MM yyyy                bindingContext ModelState SetModelValue bindingContext ModelName  value                try                               var date   value ConvertTo typeof DateTime   cultureInf                    return date                            catch  Exception ex                                bindingContext ModelState AddModelError bindingContext ModelName  ex                   return null                                    To keep with the way that routes etc are regiseterd in the Global ASAX file I also added a new sytatic class to the App Start folder of my MVC4 project named CustomModelBinderConfig   using System  using System Web Mvc   namespace YourNamespaceHere       public static class CustomModelBindersConfig               public static void RegisterCustomModelBinders                         ModelBinders Binders Add typeof DateTime   new CustomModelBinders CustomDateBinder                 ModelBinders Binders Add typeof DateTime    new CustomModelBinders NullableCustomDateBinder                         I then just call the static RegisterCustomModelBinders from my Global ASASX Application Start like this   protected void Application Start            bla blah bla the usual stuff and then         CustomModelBindersConfig RegisterCustomModelBinders        An important note here is that if you write a DateTime value to a hiddenfield like this    Html HiddenFor model   gt  model SomeDate     a DateTime property  Html Hiddenfor model   gt  model     a model that is of type DateTime   I did that and the actual value on the page was in the format  MM dd yyyy hh mm ss tt  instead of  dd MM yyyy hh mm ss tt  like I wanted  This caused my model validation to either fail or return the wrong date  obviously swapping the day and month values around    After a lot of head scratching and failed attempts the solution was to set the culture info for every request by doing this in the Global ASAX   protected void Application BeginRequest         CultureInfo cInf   new CultureInfo  en-ZA   false            NOTE  change the culture name en-ZA to whatever culture suits your needs      cInf DateTimeFormat DateSeparator            cInf DateTimeFormat ShortDatePattern    dd MM yyyy       cInf DateTimeFormat LongDatePattern    dd MM yyyy hh mm ss tt        System Threading Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   cInf      System Threading Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   cInf      It won t work if you stick it in Application Start or even Session Start since that assigns it to the current thread for the session  As you well know  web applications are stateless so the thread that serviced your request previously is ot the same thread serviceing your current request hence your culture info has gone to the great GC in the digital sky   Thanks go to  Ivan Zlatev - http   ivanz com 2010 11 03 custom-model-binding-using-imodelbinder-in-asp-net-mvc-two-gotchas   garik - https   stackoverflow com a 2468447 578208  Dmitry - https   stackoverflow com a 11903896 578208

User · Answer

Try to use toISOString    It returns string in ISO8601 format   GET method  javascript    get   example doGet date     new Date   toISOString    function  result        console log result         c    HttpGet  public JsonResult DoGet DateTime date        return Json date ToString    JsonRequestBehavior AllowGet       POST method  javascript    post   example do     date  date toISOString      function  result        console log result         c    HttpPost  public JsonResult Do DateTime date         return Json date ToString

User · Answer

I would globally set your cultures  ModelBinder pick that up        lt system web gt       lt globalization uiCulture  en-AU  culture  en-AU    gt    Or you just change this for this page  But globally in web config I think is better

User · Answer

I set CurrentCulture and CurrentUICulture my custom base controller      protected override void Initialize RequestContext requestContext                base Initialize requestContext            Thread CurrentThread CurrentCulture   CultureInfo GetCultureInfo  en-GB            Thread CurrentThread CurrentUICulture   CultureInfo GetCultureInfo  en-GB

User · Answer

It going to be slightly different in MVC 3   Suppose we have a controller and a view with Get method  public ActionResult DoSomething DateTime dateTime        return View        We should add ModelBinder  public class DateTimeBinder   IModelBinder        region IModelBinder Members     public object BindModel ControllerContext controllerContext  ModelBindingContext bindingContext                DateTime dateTime          if  DateTime TryParse controllerContext HttpContext Request QueryString  dateTime    CultureInfo GetCultureInfo  en-GB    DateTimeStyles None  out dateTime               return dateTime            else         return new DateTime     or another appropriate default              endregion     and the command in Application Start   of Global asax  ModelBinders Binders Add typeof DateTime   new DateTimeBinder

User · Answer

I ve just found the answer to this with some more exhaustive googling   Melvyn Harbour has a thorough explanation of why MVC works with dates the way it does  and how you can override this if necessary   http   weblogs asp net melvynharbour archive 2008 11 21 mvc-modelbinder-and-localization aspx     When looking for the value to parse  the framework looks in a specific order namely          RouteData  not shown above    URI query string   Request form         Only the last of these will be culture aware however  There is a very good reason for this  from a localization perspective  Imagine that I have written a web application showing airline flight information that I publish online  I look up flights on a certain date by clicking on a link for that day  perhaps something like http   www melsflighttimes com Flights 2008-11-21   and then want to email that link to my colleague in the US  The only way that we could guarantee that we will both be looking at the same page of data is if the InvariantCulture is used  By contrast  if I m using a form to book my flight  everything is happening in a tight cycle  The data can respect the CurrentCulture when it is written to the form  and so needs to respect it when coming back from the form

[asp.net-mvc] MVC DateTime binding with incorrect date format

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