How to list all month names, e.g. for a combo?

Question

At the moment I\'m creating a DateTime for each month and formatting it to only include the month.
Is there another or any better way to do this?

Answer 1

They're defined as an array in the Globalization namespaces.

using System.Globalization;

for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++) {
   Console.WriteLine(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames[i]);
}

Answer 2

A little LINQ just because it is beautifully concise:

var monthOptions = DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.MonthNames
    .Where(p=>!string.IsNullOrEmpty(p))
    .Select((item, index) => new { Id = index + 1, Name = item });

You need the Where clause because the calendar returns a 13th month name (empty in English).

The index returns index within the IEnumerable, so you need a +1 for the actual month index.

Answer 3

Sure, I'll give my input to a 10+ year old question.

In my case, I create a property that returns a dictionary (or similar), generated with the following code:

Dictionary<int, string> Months = Enumerable.Range(1, 12).Select(i => new KeyValuePair<int, string>(i, System.Globalization.DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetMonthName(i))).ToDictionary(x => x.Key, x => x.Value);

Output (from Linqpad):

Key Value
1   January
2   February
3   March
4   April
5   May
6   June
7   July
8   August
9   September
10  October
11  November
12  December

Hope somebody finds this useful!

Answer 4

This method will allow you to apply a list of key value pairs of months to their int counterparts. We generate it with a single line using Enumerable Ranges and LINQ. Hooray, LINQ code-golfing!

var months = Enumerable.Range(1, 12).Select(i => new { I = i, M = DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetMonthName(i) });

To apply it to an ASP dropdown list:

// <asp:DropDownList runat="server" ID="ddlMonths" />
ddlMonths.DataSource = months;
ddlMonths.DataTextField = "M";
ddlMonths.DataValueField = "I";
ddlMonths.DataBind();

Answer 5

Here is a good example for filling a drop down list with Months for Credit Card form:

    Dim currentCulture As CultureInfo = CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture
    Dim monthName, monthNumber As String

    For x As Integer = 0 To 11
        monthNumber = (x + 1).ToString("D2")
        monthName = currentCulture.DateTimeFormat.MonthNames(x)
        Dim month As New ListItem(String.Format("{0} - {1}", monthNumber, monthName),
                                  x.ToString("D2"))
        ddl_expirymonth.Items.Add(month)
    Next

Creates the following localized to current language, example:

01 - January
02 - February
etc.

Answer 6

How to create a custom list of month names in any order

Yes, I'm answering a question from over 10 years ago! :D

Yet, I wanted to add this code snippet on the chance it might help others. It shows how to output a list of month names in any custom order. In my case I needed it to start in October, but you could put the months in any sequence (even have repeating months) by setting the list of integers.

model.Controls = new
{
    FiscalMonths = new
    {
        Value = DateTime.Now.Month,
        Options = (new List<int> { 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }).Select(p => new
        {
            Value = p,
            Text = DateTimeFormatInfo.CurrentInfo.GetMonthName(p)
        })
    }
};

And the json output for use in a dropdown:

  "FiscalMonths": {
   "Value": 10,
   "Options": [
    {
     "Value": 10,
     "Text": "October"
    },
    {
     "Value": 11,
     "Text": "November"
    },
    {
     "Value": 12,
     "Text": "December"
    },
    {
     "Value": 1,
     "Text": "January"
    },
    {
     "Value": 2,
     "Text": "February"
    },
    etc ....