Question International Date Time conversion

gchq

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 14, 2007
Messages
168
Programming Experience
10+
Hi there

We have a desktop WinApp that saves data to our server via a WebService

Our servers are set to UTC

Question is - what is the best method of saving dates locally and then retrieving them?

I have tried several methods like

VB.NET:
DateTime.Parse(InputDate).ToUniversalTime

to save the date

and

VB.NET:
DateTime.Parse(InputDate).ToLocalTime

to display the date...

But to no avail!

Any ideas on the best method?

Thanks


==========================================

Just to add a bit of history

At first dates were saved and displayed 'as is' with no conversion (a string, is a string, is a string... what needs to be converted?)

Then I discovered that data saved with a GB regional setting was very helpfully (not) showing as the day before at 16:00 (PST), sooooo..

VB.NET:
 Public Function ReturnLocalDateFormat(ByVal InputDate As Date) As String
        InputDate = DateTime.Parse(InputDate).ToUniversalTime
               Dim vCulture As String = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.ToString
        Dim vReturnDate As String = ""
        Select Case vCulture
            Case "en-US"
                vReturnDate = Format(InputDate, "MM/dd/yyyy")
            Case "en-GB"
                vReturnDate = Format(InputDate, "dd/MM/yyyy")
            Case Else
                vReturnDate = Format(InputDate, "dd/MM/yyyy")
        End Select
        Return vReturnDate    
    End Function

... seemed to sort out the problem, and we had peace within developer land!

Then it was discovered that entering an item on the PST PC before 08:00 would display the date as the day before...

Since then it's been all downhill with every new method attempted...
 
Last edited:
*******!!! Daylight Saving Hours *****!!!

After it dawned on me that there was no problem with dates before the clocks went forward, the solution was this:-

VB.NET:
Dim LocalZone As TimeZone = TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone
        Dim CurrentOffset As TimeSpan = LocalZone.GetUtcOffset(InputDate)
        Dim DayLightSaving As Boolean = LocalZone.IsDaylightSavingTime(InputDate)
        Dim CalculatedOffset As New DateTime(InputDate.Ticks, DateTimeKind.Local)
        If CurrentOffset.CompareTo(TimeSpan.Zero) < 0 Then
            CalculatedOffset -= LocalZone.GetUtcOffset(InputDate)
            If DayLightSaving = True Then
                CalculatedOffset = CalculatedOffset.AddHours(1)
            End If
        Else
            CalculatedOffset += LocalZone.GetUtcOffset(InputDate)
            If DayLightSaving = True Then
                CalculatedOffset = CalculatedOffset.AddHours(-1)
            End If
        End If

        InputDate = CalculatedOffset
 
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