How do I pass a datetime value as a URI parameter in asp.net mvc?

I need to have an action parameter that has a datetime value? Is there a standard way to do this? I need to have something like:

mysite/Controller/Action/21-9-2009 10:20

but I'm only succeeding indoing it with something like:

mysite/Controller/Action/200909211020

and writing a custome function to deal with this format.

Again, looking for a standard or sanctioned ASP.net MVC way to do this.

The colon in your first example's url is going to cause an error (Bad Request) so you can't do exactly what you are looking for. Other than that, using a DateTime as an action parameter is most definitely possible.

If you are using the default routing, this 3rd portion of your example url is going to pickup the DateTime value as the {id} parameter. So your Action method might look like this:

public ActionResult Index(DateTime? id)
{
    return View();
}

You'll probably want to use a Nullable Datetime as I have, so if this parameter isn't included it won't cause an exception. Of course, if you don't want it to be named "id" then add another route entry replacing {id} with your name of choice.

As long as the text in the url will parse to a valid DateTime value, this is all you have to do. Something like the following works fine and will be picked up in your Action method without any errors:

<%=Html.ActionLink("link", "Index", new { id = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy") }) %>

The catch, in this case of course, is that I did not include the time. I'm not sure there are any ways to format a (valid) date string with the time not represented with colons, so if you MUST include the time in the url, you may need to use your own format and parse the result back into a DateTime manually. Say we replace the colon with a "!" in the actionlink: new { id = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy HH!mm") }.

Your action method will fail to parse this as a date so the best bet in this case would probably to accept it as a string:

public ActionResult Index(string id)
{
    DateTime myDate;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(id))
    {
        myDate = DateTime.Parse(id.Replace("!", ":"));
    }
    return View();
}

Edit: As noted in the comments, there are some other solutions arguably better than mine. When I originally wrote this answer I believe I was trying to preserve the essence of the date time format as best possible, but clearly URL encoding it would be a more proper way of handling this. +1 to Vlad's comment.

Try to use toISOString(). It returns string in ISO8601 format.

from javascript

$.get('/example/doGet?date=' + new Date().toISOString(), function (result) {
    console.log(result);
});

from c#

[HttpGet]
public JsonResult DoGet(DateTime date)
{
    return Json(date.ToString(), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

Use the ticks value. It's quite simple to rebuild into a DateTime structure

 Int64 nTicks = DateTime.Now.Ticks;
 ....
 DateTime dtTime = new DateTime(nTicks);

I thought I'd share what works for me in MVC5 for anyone that comes looking for a similar answer.

My Controller Signature looks like this:

public ActionResult Index(DateTime? EventDate, DateTime? EventTime)
{

}

My ActionLink looks like this in Razor:

@Url.Action("Index", "Book", new { EventDate = apptTime, EventTime = apptTime})

This gives a URL like this:

Book?EventDate=01%2F20%2F2016%2014%3A15%3A00&EventTime=01%2F20%2F2016%2014%3A15%3A00

Which encodes the date and time as it should.

Typical format of a URI for ASP .NET MVC is Controller/Action/Id where Id is an integer

I would suggest sending the date value as a parameter rather than as part of the route:

 mysite/Controller/Action?date=21-9-2009 10:20

If it's still giving you problems the date may contain characters that are not allowed in a URI and need to be encoded. Check out:

 encodeURIComponent(yourstring)

It is a method within Javascript.

On the Server Side:

public ActionResult ActionName(string date)
{
     DateTime mydate;
     DateTime.Tryparse(date, out mydate);
}

FYI, any url parameter can be mapped to an action method parameter as long as the names are the same.

Split out the Year, Month, Day Hours and Mins

routes.MapRoute(
            "MyNewRoute",
            "{controller}/{action}/{Year}/{Month}/{Days}/{Hours}/{Mins}",
            new { controller="YourControllerName", action="YourActionName"}
        );

Use a cascading If Statement to Build up the datetime from the parameters passed into the Action

    ' Build up the date from the passed url or use the current date
    Dim tCurrentDate As DateTime = Nothing
    If Year.HasValue Then
        If Month.HasValue Then
            If Day.HasValue Then
                tCurrentDate = New Date(Year, Month, Day)
            Else
                tCurrentDate = New Date(Year, Month, 1)
            End If
        Else
            tCurrentDate = New Date(Year, 1, 1)
        End If
    Else
        tCurrentDate = StartOfThisWeek(Date.Now)
    End If

(Apologies for the vb.net but you get the idea :P)

Since MVC 5 you can use the built in Attribute Routing package which supports a datetime type, which will accept anything that can be parsed to a DateTime.

e.g.

[GET("Orders/{orderDate:datetime}")]

More info here.

i realize it works after adding a slash behind like so

mysite/Controller/Action/21-9-2009 10:20/

You should first add a new route in global.asax:

routes.MapRoute(
"MyNewRoute",
"{controller}/{action}/{date}",
new { controller="YourControllerName", action="YourActionName", date = "" }
);

The on your Controller:

    public ActionResult MyActionName(DateTime date)
    {

    }

Remember to keep your default route at the bottom of the RegisterRoutes method. Be advised that the engine will try to cast whatever value you send in {date} as a DateTime example, so if it can't be casted then an exception will be thrown. If your date string contains spaces or : you could HTML.Encode them so the URL could be parsed correctly. If no, then you could have another DateTime representation.

I have the same problem. I use DateTime.Parse Method. and in the URL use this format to pass my DateTime parameter 2018-08-18T07:22:16

for more information about using DateTime Parse method refer to this link : DateTime Parse Method

string StringDateToDateTime(string date)
    {
        DateTime dateFormat = DateTime.Parse(date);
        return dateFormat ;
    }

I hope this link helps you.