It is a rare application that can be developed without in some way needing to work with dates and times. In recongition of this fact, the Microsoft engineers responsible for C# gave us the ''DateTime'' object. In this chapter we will look in detail at using this object to work with dates and times in C# based applications. Topics covered include adding and subtracting time, getting the system date and time and formating and extracting elements of dates and times in C#.

It is a rare application that can be developed without in some way needing to work with dates and times. In recognition of this fact, the Microsoft engineers responsible for C# gave us the ''DateTime'' object. In this chapter we will look in detail at using this object to work with dates and times in C# based applications. Topics covered include adding and subtracting time, getting the system date and time and formatting and extracting elements of dates and times in C#.

== Creating a C# Date Time Object ==

== Creating a C# Date Time Object ==

In the above example, after setting the date we use the ''ToString()'' method of the DateTime object to output the current date and time value as a string.

In the above example, after setting the date we use the ''ToString()'' method of the DateTime object to output the current date and time value as a string.

It is important to note that if a time is not specified along with the date, the DateTIme class constructor will set the time to 12:00am. With this in mind, the above code will output the following text:

It is important to note that if a time is not specified along with the date, the DateTime class constructor will set the time to 12:00am. With this in mind, the above code will output the following text:

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An key issue to understand is that these methods do not change the value of the DateTime object on which the method is called, but rather return a new DateTime object primed with the modified date and time. For example, to add 5 days to our example:

A key issue to understand is that these methods do not change the value of the DateTime object on which the method is called, but rather return a new DateTime object primed with the modified date and time. For example, to add 5 days to our example:

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The above code, will generate the following output, showing a date 5 days into the future from our original date and time:

The above code will generate the following output, showing a date 5 days into the future from our original date and time:

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== Retrieving Parts of a Date and Time ==

== Retrieving Parts of a Date and Time ==