In C#, how do I calculate someone's age based on a DateTime type birthday?

Question

Given a DateTime representing a person\'s birthday, how do I calculate their age in years?

Answer 1

The following approach (extract from Time Period Library for .NET class DateDiff) considers the calendar of the culture info:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
private static int YearDiff( DateTime date1, DateTime date2 )
{
  return YearDiff( date1, date2, DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.Calendar );
} // YearDiff

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
private static int YearDiff( DateTime date1, DateTime date2, Calendar calendar )
{
  if ( date1.Equals( date2 ) )
  {
    return 0;
  }

  int year1 = calendar.GetYear( date1 );
  int month1 = calendar.GetMonth( date1 );
  int year2 = calendar.GetYear( date2 );
  int month2 = calendar.GetMonth( date2 );

  // find the the day to compare
  int compareDay = date2.Day;
  int compareDaysPerMonth = calendar.GetDaysInMonth( year1, month1 );
  if ( compareDay > compareDaysPerMonth )
  {
    compareDay = compareDaysPerMonth;
  }

  // build the compare date
  DateTime compareDate = new DateTime( year1, month2, compareDay,
    date2.Hour, date2.Minute, date2.Second, date2.Millisecond );
  if ( date2 > date1 )
  {
    if ( compareDate < date1 )
    {
      compareDate = compareDate.AddYears( 1 );
    }
  }
  else
  {
    if ( compareDate > date1 )
    {
      compareDate = compareDate.AddYears( -1 );
    }
  }
  return year2 - calendar.GetYear( compareDate );
} // YearDiff

Usage:

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public void CalculateAgeSamples()
{
  PrintAge( new DateTime( 2000, 02, 29 ), new DateTime( 2009, 02, 28 ) );
  // > Birthdate=29.02.2000, Age at 28.02.2009 is 8 years
  PrintAge( new DateTime( 2000, 02, 29 ), new DateTime( 2012, 02, 28 ) );
  // > Birthdate=29.02.2000, Age at 28.02.2012 is 11 years
} // CalculateAgeSamples

// ----------------------------------------------------------------------
public void PrintAge( DateTime birthDate, DateTime moment )
{
  Console.WriteLine( "Birthdate={0:d}, Age at {1:d} is {2} years", birthDate, moment, YearDiff( birthDate, moment ) );
} // PrintAge