Thread safe DateTime update using Interlocked.*

Question

Can I use an Interlocked.* synchronization method to update a DateTime variable?

I wish to maintain a last-touch time stamp in memory. Multiple http threads will update

Answer 1

My approach is not one of the best, but you can use a string var to store a formatted date and then parse it back into datetime:

class x
{
  string _lastHit;

  void Touch()
  {
    Interlocked.Exchange( ref _lastHit, DateTime.Now.ToString("format your date") );   
  }
}

When you need to use this value, just parse into DateTime:

DateTime.Parse(_lastHit)

The parsing is always working, because the string is formatted using the DateTime class, but you can use TryParse to handle possible parsing errors