Using DateTime in a SqlParameter for Stored Procedure format error

Question

I m trying to call a stored procedure  on a SQL 2005 server  from C    NET 2 0 using DateTime as a value to a SqlParameter   The SQL type in the stored procedure is  datetime    Executing the sproc from SQL Management Studio works fine   But everytime I call it from C  I get an error about the date format     When I run SQL Profiler to watch the calls  I then copy paste the exec call to see what s going on   These are my observations and notes about what I ve attempted   1   If I pass the DateTime in directly as a DateTime or converted to SqlDateTime  the field is surrounding by a PAIR of single quotes  such as   Date Of Birth N  1 8 2009 8 06 17 PM     2   If I pass the DateTime in as a string  I only get the single quotes  3   Using SqlDateTime ToSqlString   does not result in a UTC formatted datetime string  even after converting to universal time   4   Using DateTime ToString   does not result in a UTC formatted datetime string   5   Manually setting the DbType for the SqlParameter to DateTime does not change the above observations   So  my questions then  is how on earth do I get C  to pass the properly formatted time in the SqlParameter   Surely this is a common use case  why is it so difficult to get working   I can t seem to convert DateTime to a string that is SQL compatable  e g   2009-01-08T08 22 45    EDIT  RE  BFree  the code to actually execute the sproc is as follows   using  SqlCommand sprocCommand   new SqlCommand sprocName         sprocCommand Connection   transaction Connection      sprocCommand Transaction   transaction      sprocCommand CommandType   System Data CommandType StoredProcedure      sprocCommand Parameters AddRange parameters ToArray         sprocCommand ExecuteNonQuery        To go into more detail about what I have tried   parameters Add new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth   DOB     parameters Add new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth   DOB ToUniversalTime       parameters Add new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth        DOB ToUniversalTime   ToString       SqlParameter param   new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth        System Data SqlDbType DateTime   param Value   DOB ToUniversalTime    parameters Add param    SqlParameter param   new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth        SqlDbType DateTime   param Value   new SqlDateTime DOB ToUniversalTime     parameters Add param    parameters Add new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth        new SqlDateTime DOB ToUniversalTime    ToSqlString        Additional EDIT  The one I thought most likely to work   SqlParameter param   new SqlParameter   Date Of Birth         System Data SqlDbType DateTime   param Value   DOB    Results in this value in the exec call as seen in the SQL Profiler   Date Of Birth   2009-01-08 15 08 21 813     If I modify this to be    Date Of Birth  2009-01-08T15 08 21    It works  but it won t parse with pair of single quotes  and it wont convert to a DateTime correctly with the space between the date and time and with the milliseconds on the end   Update and Success  I had copy pasted the code above after the request from below   I trimmed things here and there to be concise   Turns out my problem was in the code I left out  which I m sure any one of you would have spotted in an instant   I had wrapped my sproc calls inside a transaction   Turns out that I was simply not doing transaction Commit         I m ashamed to say it  but there you have it   I still don t know what s going on with the syntax I get back from the profiler   A coworker watched with his own instance of the profiler from his computer  and it returned proper syntax   Watching the very SAME executions from my profiler showed the incorrect syntax   It acted as a red-herring  making me believe there was a query syntax problem instead of the much more simple and true answer  which was that I need to commit the transaction     I marked an answer below as correct  and threw in some up-votes on others because they did  after all  answer the question  even if they didn t fix my specific  brain lapse  issue

User · Answer

Here is how I add parameters   sprocCommand Parameters Add New SqlParameter   Date Of Birth  Data SqlDbType DateTime   sprocCommand Parameters   Date Of Birth   Value   DOB   I am assuming when you write out DOB there are no quotes   Are you using a third-party control to get the date  I have had problems with the way the text value is generated from some of them   Lastly  does it work if you type in the  Value attribute of the parameter without referencing DOB

User · Answer

Just use    param AddWithValue   Date Of Birth  DOB     That will take care of all your problems

User · Answer

How are you setting up the SqlParameter   You should set the SqlDbType property to SqlDbType DateTime and then pass the DateTime directly to the parameter  do NOT convert to a string  you are asking for a bunch of problems then    You should be able to get the value into the DB   If not  here is a very simple example of how to do it   static void Main string   args           Create the connection      using  SqlConnection connection   new SqlConnection   Data Source                         Open the connection          connection Open                Create the command          using  SqlCommand command   new SqlCommand  xsp Test   connection                            Set the command type              command CommandType   System Data CommandType StoredProcedure                  Add the parameter              SqlParameter parameter   command Parameters Add   dt                   System Data SqlDbType DateTime                   Set the value              parameter Value   DateTime Now                  Make the call              command ExecuteNonQuery                        I think part of the issue here is that you are worried that the fact that the time is in UTC is not being conveyed to SQL Server   To that end  you shouldn t  because SQL Server doesn t know that a particular time is in a particular locale time zone   If you want to store the UTC value  then convert it to UTC before passing it to SQL Server  unless your server has the same time zone as the client code generating the DateTime  and even then  that s a risk  IMO    SQL Server will store this value and when you get it back  if you want to display it in local time  you have to do it yourself  which the DateTime struct will easily do    All that being said  if you perform the conversion and then pass the converted UTC date  the date that is obtained by calling the ToUniversalTime method  not by converting to a string  to the stored procedure   And when you get the value back  call the ToLocalTime method to get the time in the local time zone

User · Answer

Here is how I add parameters   sprocCommand Parameters Add New SqlParameter   Date Of Birth  Data SqlDbType DateTime   sprocCommand Parameters   Date Of Birth   Value   DOB   I am assuming when you write out DOB there are no quotes   Are you using a third-party control to get the date  I have had problems with the way the text value is generated from some of them   Lastly  does it work if you type in the  Value attribute of the parameter without referencing DOB

User · Answer

Here is how I add parameters   sprocCommand Parameters Add New SqlParameter   Date Of Birth  Data SqlDbType DateTime   sprocCommand Parameters   Date Of Birth   Value   DOB   I am assuming when you write out DOB there are no quotes   Are you using a third-party control to get the date  I have had problems with the way the text value is generated from some of them   Lastly  does it work if you type in the  Value attribute of the parameter without referencing DOB

User · Answer

If you use Microsoft ApplicationBlocks Data it ll make calling your sprocs a single line  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB    Oh and I think casperOne is correct   if you want to ensure the correct datetime over multiple timezones then simply convert the value to UTC before you send the value to SQL Server  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB ToUniversalTime

User · Answer

Just use    param AddWithValue   Date Of Birth  DOB     That will take care of all your problems

User · Answer

Just use    param AddWithValue   Date Of Birth  DOB     That will take care of all your problems

User · Answer

How are you setting up the SqlParameter   You should set the SqlDbType property to SqlDbType DateTime and then pass the DateTime directly to the parameter  do NOT convert to a string  you are asking for a bunch of problems then    You should be able to get the value into the DB   If not  here is a very simple example of how to do it   static void Main string   args           Create the connection      using  SqlConnection connection   new SqlConnection   Data Source                         Open the connection          connection Open                Create the command          using  SqlCommand command   new SqlCommand  xsp Test   connection                            Set the command type              command CommandType   System Data CommandType StoredProcedure                  Add the parameter              SqlParameter parameter   command Parameters Add   dt                   System Data SqlDbType DateTime                   Set the value              parameter Value   DateTime Now                  Make the call              command ExecuteNonQuery                        I think part of the issue here is that you are worried that the fact that the time is in UTC is not being conveyed to SQL Server   To that end  you shouldn t  because SQL Server doesn t know that a particular time is in a particular locale time zone   If you want to store the UTC value  then convert it to UTC before passing it to SQL Server  unless your server has the same time zone as the client code generating the DateTime  and even then  that s a risk  IMO    SQL Server will store this value and when you get it back  if you want to display it in local time  you have to do it yourself  which the DateTime struct will easily do    All that being said  if you perform the conversion and then pass the converted UTC date  the date that is obtained by calling the ToUniversalTime method  not by converting to a string  to the stored procedure   And when you get the value back  call the ToLocalTime method to get the time in the local time zone

User · Answer

If you use Microsoft ApplicationBlocks Data it ll make calling your sprocs a single line  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB    Oh and I think casperOne is correct   if you want to ensure the correct datetime over multiple timezones then simply convert the value to UTC before you send the value to SQL Server  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB ToUniversalTime

User · Answer

Here is how I add parameters   sprocCommand Parameters Add New SqlParameter   Date Of Birth  Data SqlDbType DateTime   sprocCommand Parameters   Date Of Birth   Value   DOB   I am assuming when you write out DOB there are no quotes   Are you using a third-party control to get the date  I have had problems with the way the text value is generated from some of them   Lastly  does it work if you type in the  Value attribute of the parameter without referencing DOB

User · Answer

If you use Microsoft ApplicationBlocks Data it ll make calling your sprocs a single line  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB    Oh and I think casperOne is correct   if you want to ensure the correct datetime over multiple timezones then simply convert the value to UTC before you send the value to SQL Server  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB ToUniversalTime

User · Answer

Just use    param AddWithValue   Date Of Birth  DOB     That will take care of all your problems

User · Answer

How are you setting up the SqlParameter   You should set the SqlDbType property to SqlDbType DateTime and then pass the DateTime directly to the parameter  do NOT convert to a string  you are asking for a bunch of problems then    You should be able to get the value into the DB   If not  here is a very simple example of how to do it   static void Main string   args           Create the connection      using  SqlConnection connection   new SqlConnection   Data Source                         Open the connection          connection Open                Create the command          using  SqlCommand command   new SqlCommand  xsp Test   connection                            Set the command type              command CommandType   System Data CommandType StoredProcedure                  Add the parameter              SqlParameter parameter   command Parameters Add   dt                   System Data SqlDbType DateTime                   Set the value              parameter Value   DateTime Now                  Make the call              command ExecuteNonQuery                        I think part of the issue here is that you are worried that the fact that the time is in UTC is not being conveyed to SQL Server   To that end  you shouldn t  because SQL Server doesn t know that a particular time is in a particular locale time zone   If you want to store the UTC value  then convert it to UTC before passing it to SQL Server  unless your server has the same time zone as the client code generating the DateTime  and even then  that s a risk  IMO    SQL Server will store this value and when you get it back  if you want to display it in local time  you have to do it yourself  which the DateTime struct will easily do    All that being said  if you perform the conversion and then pass the converted UTC date  the date that is obtained by calling the ToUniversalTime method  not by converting to a string  to the stored procedure   And when you get the value back  call the ToLocalTime method to get the time in the local time zone

User · Answer

If you use Microsoft ApplicationBlocks Data it ll make calling your sprocs a single line  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB    Oh and I think casperOne is correct   if you want to ensure the correct datetime over multiple timezones then simply convert the value to UTC before you send the value to SQL Server  SqlHelper ExecuteNonQuery ConnectionString   SprocName   DOB ToUniversalTime

User · Answer

How are you setting up the SqlParameter   You should set the SqlDbType property to SqlDbType DateTime and then pass the DateTime directly to the parameter  do NOT convert to a string  you are asking for a bunch of problems then    You should be able to get the value into the DB   If not  here is a very simple example of how to do it   static void Main string   args           Create the connection      using  SqlConnection connection   new SqlConnection   Data Source                         Open the connection          connection Open                Create the command          using  SqlCommand command   new SqlCommand  xsp Test   connection                            Set the command type              command CommandType   System Data CommandType StoredProcedure                  Add the parameter              SqlParameter parameter   command Parameters Add   dt                   System Data SqlDbType DateTime                   Set the value              parameter Value   DateTime Now                  Make the call              command ExecuteNonQuery                        I think part of the issue here is that you are worried that the fact that the time is in UTC is not being conveyed to SQL Server   To that end  you shouldn t  because SQL Server doesn t know that a particular time is in a particular locale time zone   If you want to store the UTC value  then convert it to UTC before passing it to SQL Server  unless your server has the same time zone as the client code generating the DateTime  and even then  that s a risk  IMO    SQL Server will store this value and when you get it back  if you want to display it in local time  you have to do it yourself  which the DateTime struct will easily do    All that being said  if you perform the conversion and then pass the converted UTC date  the date that is obtained by calling the ToUniversalTime method  not by converting to a string  to the stored procedure   And when you get the value back  call the ToLocalTime method to get the time in the local time zone

[c#] Using DateTime in a SqlParameter for Stored Procedure, format error

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