Given a DateTime object, how do I get an ISO 8601

Question

Given:

DateTime.UtcNow

How do I get a string which represents the same value in an ISO 8601-compliant format?

Note that ISO 8601 defines a number of similar formats. The specific format I am looking for is:

yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssZ

Answer 1

Use:

private void TimeFormats()
{
    DateTime localTime = DateTime.Now;
    DateTime utcTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
    DateTimeOffset localTimeAndOffset = new DateTimeOffset(localTime, TimeZoneInfo.Local.GetUtcOffset(localTime));

    //UTC
    string strUtcTime_o = utcTime.ToString("o");
    string strUtcTime_s = utcTime.ToString("s");
    string strUtcTime_custom = utcTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssK");

    //Local
    string strLocalTimeAndOffset_o = localTimeAndOffset.ToString("o");
    string strLocalTimeAndOffset_s = localTimeAndOffset.ToString("s");
    string strLocalTimeAndOffset_custom = utcTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssK");

    //Output
    Response.Write("<br/>UTC<br/>");
    Response.Write("strUtcTime_o: " + strUtcTime_o + "<br/>");
    Response.Write("strUtcTime_s: " + strUtcTime_s + "<br/>");
    Response.Write("strUtcTime_custom: " + strUtcTime_custom + "<br/>");

    Response.Write("<br/>Local Time<br/>");
    Response.Write("strLocalTimeAndOffset_o: " + strLocalTimeAndOffset_o + "<br/>");
    Response.Write("strLocalTimeAndOffset_s: " + strLocalTimeAndOffset_s + "<br/>");
    Response.Write("strLocalTimeAndOffset_custom: " + strLocalTimeAndOffset_custom + "<br/>");

}

OUTPUT

UTC
    strUtcTime_o: 2012-09-17T22:02:51.4021600Z
    strUtcTime_s: 2012-09-17T22:02:51
    strUtcTime_custom: 2012-09-17T22:02:51Z

Local Time
    strLocalTimeAndOffset_o: 2012-09-17T15:02:51.4021600-07:00
    strLocalTimeAndOffset_s: 2012-09-17T15:02:51
    strLocalTimeAndOffset_custom: 2012-09-17T22:02:51Z

Sources:

• Standard Date and Time Format Strings (MSDN)

• Custom Date and Time Format Strings (MSDN)

Answer 2

If you're developing under SharePoint 2010 or higher you can use

using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
...
string strISODate = SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Now)

Answer 3

DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss zzz");

DateTime.Now.ToString("O");

NOTE: Depending on the conversion you are doing on your end, you will be using the first line (most like it) or the second one.

Make sure to applied format only at local time, since "zzz" is the time zone information for UTC conversion.