How can I format DateTime to web UTC format?

Question

Hi,

I have a DateTime which I want to format to "2009-09-01T00:00:00.000Z", but the following code gives me "2009-09-01T00:00:00.000+01:00" (both lines):

Console.Out.WriteLine(new DateTime(2009, 9, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc).ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fffzzz"));
Console.Out.WriteLine(new DateTime(2009, 9, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc).ToUniversalTime().ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fffzzz"));

Any ideas how to make it work?

Answer 1

Try this:

DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(
    "Tue, 1 Jan 2008 00:00:00 UTC", 
    "ddd, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss UTC", 
    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Previously asked question

Answer 2

string foo = yourDateTime.ToUniversalTime()
                         .ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fff'Z'");

Answer 3

You want to use DateTimeOffset class.

var date = new DateTimeOffset(2009, 9, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, new TimeSpan(0L));
var stringDate = date.ToString("u");

sorry I missed your original formatting with the miliseconds

var stringDate = date.ToString("yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fff'Z'");