DateTime.Now in C# to yield Datetime2(3) in SQL Server datatype
c#, c#-4.0, datetime-format, sql-server-2008, t-sql
Solution
var format = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:fff";
var stringDate = DateTime.Now.ToString(format);
var convertedBack = DateTime.ParseExact(stringDate, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
DateTime is a data type representing dates and times and does not store format information. The milliseconds are always stored in DateTime. The only time you need to specify milliseconds is when choosing how to represent the DateTime as another type, like a string.
Problem
I tried several ways to retrieve `datetime2(3)` equivalent from C# code but in vain. One of them is as follows. ``` DateTime dt = DateTime.Now.AddMilliseconds(DateTime.Now.Millisecond); ``` I need the following format: ``` YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.FFF ``` But from the above code, I got the following result ``` 6/19/2012 11:15:08 PM ``` When I tried the following way, ``` string myTime = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:fff"); DateTime dd = Convert.ToDateTime(myTime); ``` it is throwing following error String was not recognized as a valid DateTime. I need the date in `datetime2(3)` format only instead you can suggest me to save as `nvarchar`. But I need to sort the entries according to the `datetime2` they were updated. Is there any other way to solve this?