How to format datatime for json

Question

I''m using EF to query the database using anonymous type.

here the code I use for EF

    public JsonResult OverdueEventsCustom()
    {
        var eventCustomOverdue = _eventCustomRepository.FindOverdueEventsCustom();
        return Json(eventCustomOverdue, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
    }


    public IQueryable<dynamic> FindOverdueEventsCustom()
    {
        DateTime dateTimeNow = DateTime.UtcNow;
        DateTime dateTomorrow = dateTimeNow.Date.AddDays(1);
        return db.EventCustoms.Where(x => x.DateTimeStart < dateTomorrow)
                    .Select(y => new { y.EventId, y.EventTitle, y.DateTimeStart});
    }

Inspecting using the debugger I see the properties is in this format

Date = {16/08/2012 00:00:00}

The resultfor the JSON is

[{
    "EventId": 1,
    "EventTitle": "Homework Math",
    "DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}, {
    "EventId": 4,
    "EventTitle": "Homework help with Annie",
    "DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}, {
    "EventId": 6,
    "EventTitle": "Physic laboratory",
    "DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}]

I need the the json in this format

"DateTimeStart": "(16/08/2012)"

Any idea what i'm doing wrong here? thanks for your help

Related articles

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/OnTheNightmareThatIsJSONDatesPlusJSONNETAndASPNETWebAPI.aspx

How do I format a Microsoft JSON date?

Why do you need the date in the format `"(16/08/2012)"` ? It's a limitation of the of the `JavaScriptSerializer` and there is no simple solution see: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/726334/asp-net-mvc-jsonresult-date-format. As an alternative solution you can use [Json.Net](http://james.newtonking.com/projects/json-net.aspx) for the json serilization. — nemesv, Aug 16 '12 at 10:32

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 16 '12 at 10:56

"\/Date(1345108269310)\/" is the correct way to pass a Date to javascript. The way I see it, you have two options here:

If you do not explicitly need the value as a date, you could just pass a string to the JSON variable, containing the pretty-printed date. Something along the lines of:

DateTimeStart: String.Format("{0: dd-MM-yyyy}", myDate)

If you will still need to use the variable a a date in javascript (for calculations for example), the most consice and readably way would be to create a javascript function that converts said date into the pretty-printed string you want (I don't know if such a function already exists. It isn't too hard to create though:

function prettyDate(date) {

    return date.getDate() + "-" + date.getMonth() + "-" + date.getFullYear();

}

I would suggest passing it along as a string from you code behind, as it is more readable. But that only works if you do not need to use the date except for displaying.

How to format datatime for json

1 Answers1