Comments on: Date Math in .NET http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/ Musings on the craft and business of software development Thu, 26 Aug 2010 03:21:57 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Matt Unks http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/comment-page-1/#comment-1862 Matt Unks Wed, 23 May 2007 13:58:23 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/#comment-1862 I agree. In fact someday our code will probably look rather outdated to some other more modern language. Who knows maybe in C# 5.0 you will just type DateTime.February or something similar :) I agree. In fact someday our code will probably look rather outdated to some other more modern language. Who knows maybe in C# 5.0 you will just type DateTime.February or something similar :)

]]> By: Matt Unks http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/comment-page-1/#comment-1858 Matt Unks Tue, 22 May 2007 18:13:07 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/#comment-1858 How about this: I like the Days in month feature as well. Where Year = some integer and Month is another integer DateTime.DaysInMonth(Year, Month) <em>Bob responds: Thanks, Matt! All these great suggestions underscore that you should not ignore the wealth of resources in the CLR by focusing only on legacy language features! Seriously, I don't think the author of the original code I showed was stupid or careless; but they were stuck in a rut (in this case, a legacy VB6 / VBScript rut). Paradoxically, it may have seemed easier to the coder to do it the hard way, because it would have cost as much or more to stop and look up what was available. But look at the benefits that would have flowed from that little interlude of discovery.</em> How about this:
I like the Days in month feature as well.

Where Year = some integer and
Month is another integer

DateTime.DaysInMonth(Year, Month)

Bob responds: Thanks, Matt! All these great suggestions underscore that you should not ignore the wealth of resources in the CLR by focusing only on legacy language features! Seriously, I don’t think the author of the original code I showed was stupid or careless; but they were stuck in a rut (in this case, a legacy VB6 / VBScript rut). Paradoxically, it may have seemed easier to the coder to do it the hard way, because it would have cost as much or more to stop and look up what was available. But look at the benefits that would have flowed from that little interlude of discovery.

]]> By: Paul http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/comment-page-1/#comment-1854 Paul Mon, 21 May 2007 20:26:57 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/#comment-1854 bah, knee-jerk post, didn't see the assumed "Today" variable, but adds even shorter goodness: dtpStart.Value = new DateTime(Today.Year, Today.Month, 1) <em>Bob responds: You sound like a fellow C# guy. Today is baked into the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace. When I first saw "Now" in the original code, I automatically used "Today" assuming that it was VB-speak for "DateTime.Today". Actually as I've mentioned <a href="/2007/02/07/do-you-use-language-specific-features-that-replicate-provided-net-functionality/" rel="nofollow">elsewhere</a>, I'd personally stick with DateTime.Today even in VB.NET, though.</em> bah, knee-jerk post, didn’t see the assumed “Today” variable, but adds even shorter goodness:

dtpStart.Value = new DateTime(Today.Year, Today.Month, 1)

Bob responds: You sound like a fellow C# guy. Today is baked into the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace. When I first saw “Now” in the original code, I automatically used “Today” assuming that it was VB-speak for “DateTime.Today”. Actually as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’d personally stick with DateTime.Today even in VB.NET, though.

]]> By: Paul http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/comment-page-1/#comment-1853 Paul Mon, 21 May 2007 20:25:54 +0000 http://bobondevelopment.com/2007/05/21/date-math-in-net/#comment-1853 While I agree with dtpEnd, dtpStart is a little obfuscated. Wouldn't you see the same benefit with added clarity with something like... dtpStart.Value = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, 1) <em>Bob responds: Yep, your way is more self-evident. Self-evident is good!</em> While I agree with dtpEnd, dtpStart is a little obfuscated. Wouldn’t you see the same benefit with added clarity with something like…

dtpStart.Value = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, 1)

Bob responds: Yep, your way is more self-evident. Self-evident is good!

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