C# Filename With Date Example (DateTime.Now)

Create file names with DateTime parts. This method can be used for log files.

Filename, DateTime. A filename can store the date and time. This clearly identifies the file in a unique way. There are many ways of accomplishing this. Some are clearer to read and easier to modify than others. We include the date, or the date and the time.

Tip: You can use DateTime formatting for filenames. A format string is provided.

DateTime DateTime Format

Example. We use the current date and time as the name for a file on the file system. We call the string.Format method, and combine it with DateTime.Now, for a method that outputs the correct string based on the date and time.DateTime.Now

C# program that uses date as filename using System; using System.IO; class Program { static void Main() { // // Write file containing the date with BIN extension // string n = string.Format("text-{0:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin", DateTime.Now); File.WriteAllText(n, "aaa"); } } Description of format string "text-{0:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin" text- The first part of the output required Files will all start with text- {0: Indicates that this is a string placeholder The zero indicates the index of the parameters inserted here yyyy- Prints the year in four digits followed by a dash This has a "year 10000" problem MM- Prints the month in two digits dd_ Prints the day in two digits followed by an underscore hh- Prints the hour in two digits mm- Prints the minute, also in two digits ss- As expected, it prints the seconds tt Prints AM or PM depending on the time of day

Environment.SpecialFolder. You can use this code with Environment.SpecialFolder. You can encapsulate the logic for this in a property accessor. In other words, you can use a property to easily get the complete filename.Property

Part A: This format string has 3 placeholders: first, directory name we get from SpecialFolder, the separator char, and the specially formatted DateTime.

Also: The code specifies that the file name starts with text and ends with ".bin".

Part B: It gets the My Documents folder path. This line uses the SpecialFolder.MyDocuments enum value to get the path.

Environment

Part C: The code uses Path.DirectorySeparatorChar. On Windows, this is the backslash. You could just use \\ in the string instead.

C# program that uses filename property using System; using System.IO; class Program { static string SpecialFileName { get { // A return string.Format("{0}{1}text-{2:yyyy-MM-dd_hh-mm-ss-tt}.bin", // B Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments), // C Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, // D DateTime.Now); } } static void Main() { Console.WriteLine(SpecialFileName); } } Output C:\Users\Sam\Documents\text-2008-11-18_05-23-13-PM.bin

Separators. You can change the string separators by replacing the underscores and dashes with any other character, excluding some special ones. I haven't found many uses for separators other than dashes, underscores, and spaces.

Note: Filenames cannot have some characters. This is explored further in a separate article.

Reserved Filenames

Summary. We generated file names containing the current date. This is useful for "data dumps" and log files where daily files are written. Never use random names except when you need temporary files. It is often better to append the date.

Tip: If you have to write files frequently, using the "ss" field can help—this writes seconds.

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C# Filename With Date Example (DateTime.Now)

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