Magic strings for converting DateTime to string Using C#

Question

I was greeted with a nasty bug today. The task is pretty trivial, all I needed to do is to convert the DateTime object to string in \"yyyymmdd\" format

Answer 1

If that format string bugs you that much, at least make sure it is in one place. Encapsulate it e.g. in an extension method:

public string ToMyAppsPrefferedFormat(this DateTime date) {
  return date.ToString("ddMMyyyy");
}

Then you can say date.ToMyAppsPrefferedFormat()