I need to convert UTC
date strings to DateTimeOffsets
.
This must work with a timezone which differs from the computers timezone.
E.g. current computer timezone is +02:00, but I want to create a DateTimeOffset with offset -4:00.
I already read lot of questions here on stackoverflow, but none of them solved my problem.
That is what I need to do:
Input: "2012-11-20T00:00:00Z"
Output: DateTimeOffset with:
- UtcDateTime of 2012-11-20 00:00
- the correct Utc offset for the defined timezone (01:00 in this example)
- LocalDateTime: 2012-11-20 01:00 (= UtcDateTime + Offset)
Of course daylight saving must be taken into account.
edit:
To make things even clearer, please try to complete the following code snippet:
DateTimeOffset result;
const string dateString = "2012-11-20T00:00:00Z";
var timezone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("W. Europe Standard Time"); //this timezone has an offset of +01:00:00 on this date
//do conversion here
Assert.AreEqual(result.Offset, new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0)); //the correct utc offset, in this case +01:00:00
Assert.AreEqual(result.UtcDateTime, new DateTime(2012, 11, 20, 0, 0, 0)); //equals the original date
Assert.AreEqual(result.LocalDateTime, new DateTime(2012, 11, 20, 1, 0, 0));
Here is the solution you are looking for:
const string dateString = "2012-11-20T00:00:00Z";
var timezone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("W. Europe Standard Time"); //this timezone has an offset of +01:00:00 on this date
var utc = DateTimeOffset.Parse(dateString);
var result = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTime(utc, timezone);
Assert.AreEqual(result.Offset, new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0)); //the correct utc offset, in this case +01:00:00
Assert.AreEqual(result.UtcDateTime, new DateTime(2012, 11, 20, 0, 0, 0)); //equals the original date
Assert.AreEqual(result.DateTime, new DateTime(2012, 11, 20, 1, 0, 0));
Note that you were incorrectly testing the .LocalDateTime
property - which is always going to convert the result to the local timezone of the computer. You simply need the .DateTime
property instead.
Is this what you want:
[Test]
public void ParseUtcDateTimeTest()
{
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Parse("2012-11-20T00:00:00Z");
Assert.AreEqual(new DateTime(2012, 11, 20, 01, 00, 00), dateTime);
DateTimeOffset dateTimeOffset = new DateTimeOffset(dateTime);
Assert.AreEqual(new TimeSpan(0, 1, 0, 0), dateTimeOffset.Offset);
}
- Note that my asserts are valid in Sweden (CET)
- There are a couple of overloads on
DateTime.Parse()
Is this useful for your conversion:
[Test]
public void ConvertTimeTest()
{
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Parse("2012-11-20T00:00:00Z");
TimeZoneInfo cstZone = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Central Standard Time");
DateTime convertedTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTime(dateTime, cstZone);
Assert.AreEqual(new DateTime(2012, 11, 19, 18, 00, 00), convertedTime);
TimeSpan baseUtcOffset = cstZone.BaseUtcOffset;
Assert.AreEqual(new TimeSpan(0, -6, 0, 0), baseUtcOffset);
}
const String dateString = "2012-11-20T00:00:00Z";
var offsetDate = DateTimeOffset.Parse(dateString);
var offsetDate2 = DateTime.Parse(dateString);
Output is
offsetDate {20-11-2012 0:00:00 +00:00} System.DateTimeOffset
offsetDate2 {20-11-2012 1:00:00} System.DateTime