Programming .NET Windows Applications

DateTimePicker

The DateTimePicker control lets the user interactively pick a single date and time. It provides the developer lot of flexibility and assurance that any value it returns is a valid DateTime value, eliminating the need for extensive data validation. It also automatically considers the computer's regional settings when displaying various date and time formats.

The control uses a relatively small amount of screen real estate, being about the same size as a single line text box, as seen in Figure 16-2. By default, it displays the current date in the Long Date format currently in effect on the user's machine, although this is configurable with the Format and CustomFormat properties. Clicking on the drop-down arrow at the right end of the control drops down a graphical calendar that shows the selected month with both the selected date and today's date (DateTime.Today) indicated, as shown in Figure 16-3. The colors of the different parts of the calendar can be set, as demonstrated below.

Once the calendar is dropped down, the user can change months by clicking on scroll buttons to either side of the month and year in the title or by clicking on the month name in the title and selecting from the drop-down menu. If the user clicks on the year in the title, up-down scroll buttons appear, which enable scrolling to a new year.

Table 16-11 lists many of the most commonly used properties of the DateTimePicker class.

Table 16-11. DateTimePicker properties

Property	Value type	Description ...