What is the datetime format used by Sitecore's Date / DateTime field types and how can I generate this from a regular DateTime object

Question

When I turned on "Raw values" in Sitecore to examine a Date (or DateTime) field, I see a string in the form

20170310T130700Z

Looking at the regular .Net DateTime type, I don't see a standard format option which reproduces this format. See here https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zdtaw1bw(v=vs.110).aspx

What is an easy way to generate this format from a regular DateTime object and what is the name of this format used by Sitecore?

Answer 1

Scroll to the bottom for the updated answer

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This format (with T in the middle and ending with Z) is called by Sitecore ShortIsoDateTime. I don't know if that is official name of it or not.

You can get it using Sitecore.DateUtil.GetShortIsoDateTime(dateTime) method.

There are more formats which are used by Sitecore.

Sitecore.DateUtil class is a really good place to learn more about them.

And there is a guide on Sitecore Docs: Date/time best practices

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EDIT:

Z character is added only if

if (datetime.Kind == DateTimeKind.Utc)
    str += "Z";

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EDIT 2:

Just run a test:

DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Now;
string string1 = Sitecore.DateUtil.GetShortIsoDateTime(dateTime);
// string1 is 20170310155908

dateTime = Sitecore.Common.DateTimeExtensions.SpecifyKind(dateTime, DateTimeKind.Utc);
string string2 = Sitecore.DateUtil.GetShortIsoDateTime(dateTime);
// string2 is 20170310155908Z

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EDIT 3:

You are right. I was wrong since the beginning. The correct answer is: This format is called by Sitecore IsoDate:

    DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Now;
    string dateTimeString1 = Sitecore.DateUtil.ToIsoDate(dateTime);
    // dateTimeString1 == "20170310T162500"

    dateTime = Sitecore.Common.DateTimeExtensions.SpecifyKind(dateTime, DateTimeKind.Utc);
    string dateTimeString2 = Sitecore.DateUtil.ToIsoDate(dateTime);
    // dateTimeString2 == "20170310T162500Z"

Answer 2

From a different side (.net / c#), you can always use custom formatter to format the date into any desired format.

For example, to convert the current datetime to the format that Sitecore uses, you could do the folllowing in c#:

Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ"));

which produces the following output:

More on this can be found at https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4(v=vs.110).aspx