How to Compare a Time String with DateTime.Now

Question

I have time from DB:

string user_time = "17:10:03"; //Hours:minutes:seconds
DateTime time_now = DateTime.Now;

How do I compare the time? How make same like this:

if(time_now > user_time)
{
    //Do something
}
else
{
  //Do something
}

Answer 1

You can use DateTime.Compare() along with DateTime.Parse() to convert the string to a DateTime object.

Answer 2

if (time_now > Date.Parse(DBString)) {

} else {

}

Answer 3

DateTime.Parse Will convert the string into a DateTime object which you can then use to compare.

Answer 4

DateTime supports comparison, but first you need to parse the date-time string, DateTime.Parse() should suffice:

var dateTimeStr = "17:10:03";
var user_time = DateTime.Parse( dateTimeStr );
var time_now = DateTime.Now;

if( time_now > user_time )
{
  // your code...
}

Bear in mind, that comparing dates/times sometimes requires awareness of time-zones to make the comparison meaningful.

Answer 5

if (DateTime.Now > DateTime.Parse(user_time))
{
   ...
}

But you really shouldn't store a time as a string, you should use the native time or datetime format of your database, that way you could use the value of the time in your queries, and index them properly.

Answer 6

The problem is that DateTime.Now includes a date, "17:10:03" doesn't. Do it like this:

    Dim dbaseTime As TimeSpan = TimeSpan.Parse("17:10:03")
    If DateTime.Now.TimeOfDay > dbaseTime Then
        Console.WriteLine("Let's go home")
    End If

Do everything in your power to convert that string column type to a datetime column.