Data binding formatting to a DateTime column

Question

I have a textbox with the Text property bound to a dataset column with the DataType set to System.DateTime.
The FormatString on the Binding is set to dd-MM-yyyy.

When the user enters a date it attempts to convert it to a date but can come up with some strange values for a seemingly invalid date.

For example:

textBox1.Text = "01-02-200";

Should be an invalid date but it formats it as 01-02-0200.

Is there an easy way to catch these out-of-bounds values either through setting a valid range or overriding an event on the binding/textbox?

Answer 1

Any reason not to use a date picker control instead of a textbox? Would solve validation problem and probably make it a better experience for the user.

Answer 2

A .NET DateTime is in the range 01/01/0001 to 31/12/9999 23:59:59.9999999, so 01/01/200 is considered to be valid.

You can validate the input and restrict the range: the Validating event would be the place to do your validation. You'll need to parse the string into a DateTime and validate its range.

The allowed range will be application dependent. For example, the following code will restrict the datetime to values that can be stored in a SQL Server 2005 DATETIME column (01-01-1753 to 31-12-999):

private void textBox1_Validating(object sender, CancelEventArgs e)
{
    DateTime date;
    if (!DateTime.TryParseExact(textBox1.Text, 
        "dd-MM-yyyy", 
        CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, 
        DateTimeStyles.None, 
        out date))
    {
        MessageBox.Show(textBox1.Text + " is not a valid date");
        textBox1.Focus();
        e.Cancel = true;
        return;
    }
    if ((date < (DateTime) System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlDateTime.MinValue) ||
        (date > (DateTime) System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlDateTime.MaxValue))
    {
        MessageBox.Show(textBox1.Text + " is out of range");
        textBox1.Focus();
        e.Cancel = true;
        return;
    }
}