Method SmartDate.SetDefaultFormatString() not working as expected.

[adrianwright109]

I have a .NET Core 3.1 app which is using CSLA version 5.3.1. I have a couple of properties using the SmartDate type. I would like to be able to globally set the default date format to "yyyy-MM-dd", so that I don't have to set it every time I create a new instance of the SmartDate type, e.g. new SmartDate(DateTime.Today) { FormatString = "yyyy-MM-dd" }.

I have tried setting it in Startup.cs class after the call to services.AddCsla(); in the ConfigureServices method.

The code I have used is SmartDate.SetDefaultFormatString("yyyy-MM-dd");

obj.StartDate = new SmartDate(new DateTime(2020, 12, 31));

When using the SmartDate in a string interpolation expression for example $"SmartDate: {obj.StartDate}".
Expected result: "SmartDate: 2020-12-31"
Actual result: "SmartDate: 31/12/2020"

Is it possible to set the default date format for SmartDate globally in .NET Core ?

[rockfordlhotka]

Yes. The default default is d, but you can set the default globally during app startup. For example:

  Csla.SmartDate.SetDefaultFormatString("d");

Alternately, you can change the Windows date display. The reason d is the default is because it is the OS-defined short date format, and should automatically change based on the user's culture settings.

[rockfordlhotka]

Oh, doh! I see that you're already setting the default format 😳

[rockfordlhotka]

This might require a little research, as string interpolation didn't exist when this was all first written 🙂

But it seems to me like it should work, so the fact that it doesn't is puzzling.

It could be here in the string conversion.

Or in the ToString implementation.

Both of those call the Text property implementation though. And that implementation does use the format string.

    public string Text
    {
      get { return DateToString(this.Date, FormatString, _emptyValue); }
      set { this.Date = StringToDate(value, _emptyValue); }
    }

Yeah, some research is probably necessary to figure out which path is used by string interpolation, and why the Text property isn't generating the result.

[rockfordlhotka]

Guess I shouldn't have moved this to be a discussion... 😢

[adrianwright109]

Sorry, my mistake it is working correctly with string interpolation. Please close issue.