Current date and time - Default in MVC razor

Question

When the MVC view page with this textbox, loads , I would like to display current date and time by default. How can I do this? in razor.

  @Html.EditorFor(model => model.ReturnDate)

Pero

You obviously must be done with this, but for other people coming here they should ask themselves Server time or Client time. There are answers below that could have very different results. – Geary

Answer 1

Before you return your model from the controller, set your ReturnDate property to DateTime.Now()

myModel.ReturnDate = DateTime.Now()

return View(myModel)

Your view is not the right place to set values on properties so the controller is the better place for this.

You could even have it so that the getter on ReturnDate returns the current date/time.

private DateTime _returnDate = DateTime.MinValue;
public DateTime ReturnDate{
   get{
     return (_returnDate == DateTime.MinValue)? DateTime.Now() : _returnDate;
   }
   set{_returnDate = value;}
}

Pianette

That worked for me, except I was getting this error "system.datetime.now cannot be used like a method". Removing the brackets after DateTime.Now solved this for me. – Dimphia

Answer 2

If you want to display date time on view without model, just write this:

Date : @DateTime.Now

The output will be:

Date : 16-Aug-17 2:32:10 PM

Satterwhite

Answer 3

You could initialize ReturnDate on the model before sending it to the view.

In the controller:

[HttpGet]
public ActionResult SomeAction()
{
    var viewModel = new MyActionViewModel
    {
        ReturnDate = System.DateTime.Now
    };

    return View(viewModel);
}

Kafir

Looks like @Jamie answered at the same time as me. His works too! Same answer. – Kafir

Answer 4

Isn't this what default constructors are for?

class MyModel
{

    public MyModel()
    {
        this.ReturnDate = DateTime.Now;
    }

    public date ReturnDate {get; set;};

}

Autrey

Answer 5

Date in a .razor file

<p>@DateTime.Today.toString()<p>

Sacristan

Answer 6

If you want to only return the date without time. Use this.

<span>@DateTime.Today.ToString("d")<span>

Hamlin