How to set the Format of the DateTimePicker in C#?

In Windows Forms, the DateTimePicker control is used to select and display date/time with a specific format in your form. In DateTimePicker control, you can set the format of the date and time that displayed in the DateTimePicker the Format Property. The values of this property are defined under DateTimePickerFormat enum and the values are:

• Custom: It is used to display the date and time in the custom format.
• Long: It is used to display the date and time in the long date format which is set by the operating system. Or in other words it display both date and time.
• Short: It is used to display the date and time in the short date format which is set by the operating system. Or in other words it display only date.
• Time: It is used to display the time which is set by the operating system.

The default value of this property is Long. You can set this property in two different ways:

1. Design-Time: It is the easiest way to set the format of the DateTimePicker as shown in the following steps:

• Step 1: Create a windows form as shown in the below image:

  Visual Studio -> File -> New -> Project -> WindowsFormApp

  

• Step 2: Next, drag and drop the DateTimePicker control from the toolbox to the form as shown in the below images:

  

• Step 3: After drag and drop you will go to the properties of the DateTimePicker and set the format of the DateTimePicker as shown in the below image:

  

  Output:

  

2. Run-Time: It is a little bit trickier than the above method. In this method, you can set the format of the DateTimePicker control programmatically with the help of given syntax:

public System.Windows.Forms.DateTimePickerFormat Format { get; set; }

Here, DateTimePickerFormat enum represents the values of this property. It will throw an InvalidEnumArgumentException if the value of this property does not belong to the DateTimePickerFormat enum. The following steps show how to set the format of the DateTimePicker dynamically:

• Step 1: Create a DateTimePicker using the DateTimePicker() constructor is provided by the DateTimePicker class.

  // Creating a DateTimePicker
  DateTimePicker dt = new DateTimePicker();
  

• Step 2: After creating DateTimePicker, set the Format property of the DateTimePicker provided by the DateTimePicker class.

  // Setting the format
  dt.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Long;
  

• Step 3: And last add this DateTimePicker control to the form using the following statement:

  // Adding this control to the form
  this.Controls.Add(dt);
  

Example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApp48 {

public partial class Form1 : Form {

    public Form1()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        // Creating and setting the
        // properties of the Label
        Label lab = new Label();
        lab.Location = new Point(183, 162);
        lab.Size = new Size(172, 20);
        lab.Text = "Select Date and Time";
        lab.Font = new Font("Comic Sans MS", 12);

        // Adding this control to the form
        this.Controls.Add(lab);

        // Creating and setting the
        // properties of the DateTimePicker
        DateTimePicker dt = new DateTimePicker();
        dt.Location = new Point(360, 162);
        dt.Size = new Size(292, 26);
        dt.MaxDate = new DateTime(2500, 12, 20);
        dt.MinDate = new DateTime(1753, 1, 1);
        dt.Format = DateTimePickerFormat.Long;
        dt.Name = "MyPicker";
        dt.Font = new Font("Comic Sans MS", 12);
        dt.Visible = true;
        dt.Value = DateTime.Today;

        // Adding this control
        // to the form
        this.Controls.Add(dt);
    }
}
}

Output: