C# – calculating the difference in months between two dates

cdatetimenettimespan

In C#/.NET TimeSpan has TotalDays, TotalMinutes, etc. but I can't figure out a formula for total months difference. Variable days per month and leap years keep throwing me off. How can I get TotalMonths?

Edit Sorry for not being more clear: I know I can't actually get this from TimeSpan but I thought using TotalDays and TotalMinutes would be a good example to express what I was looking for … except I'm trying to get Total Months.

Example: Dec 25, 2009 – Oct 6, 2009 = 2 TotalMonths. Oct 6th to Nov 5th equals 0 months. On Nov 6th, 1 month. On Dec 6th, 2 months

Best Answer

You won't be able to get that from a TimeSpan, because a "month" is a variable unit of measure. You'll have to calculate it yourself, and you'll have to figure out how exactly you want it to work.

For example, should dates like July 5, 2009 and August 4, 2009 yield one month or zero months difference? If you say it should yield one, then what about July 31, 2009 and August 1, 2009? Is that a month? Is it simply the difference of the Month values for the dates, or is it more related to an actual span of time? The logic for determining all of these rules is non-trivial, so you'll have to determine your own and implement the appropriate algorithm.

If all you want is simply a difference in the months--completely disregarding the date values--then you can use this:

public static int MonthDifference(this DateTime lValue, DateTime rValue)
{
    return (lValue.Month - rValue.Month) + 12 * (lValue.Year - rValue.Year);
}

Note that this returns a relative difference, meaning that if rValue is greater than lValue, then the return value will be negative. If you want an absolute difference, you can use this:

public static int MonthDifference(this DateTime lValue, DateTime rValue)
{
    return Math.Abs((lValue.Month - rValue.Month) + 12 * (lValue.Year - rValue.Year));
}

This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

It appears that the guidance in this area may have changed, as StyleCop now enforces the use of the C# specific aliases.

C# – the difference between const and readonly in C#

Apart from the apparent difference of

having to declare the value at the time of a definition for a const VS readonly values can be computed dynamically but need to be assigned before the constructor exits.. after that it is frozen.
const's are implicitly static. You use a ClassName.ConstantName notation to access them.

There is a subtle difference. Consider a class defined in AssemblyA.

public class Const_V_Readonly
{
  public const int I_CONST_VALUE = 2;
  public readonly int I_RO_VALUE;
  public Const_V_Readonly()
  {
     I_RO_VALUE = 3;
  }
}

AssemblyB references AssemblyA and uses these values in code. When this is compiled:

in the case of the const value, it is like a find-replace. The value 2 is 'baked into' the AssemblyB's IL. This means that if tomorrow I update I_CONST_VALUE to 20, AssemblyB would still have 2 till I recompile it.
in the case of the readonly value, it is like a ref to a memory location. The value is not baked into AssemblyB's IL. This means that if the memory location is updated, AssemblyB gets the new value without recompilation. So if I_RO_VALUE is updated to 30, you only need to build AssemblyA and all clients do not need to be recompiled.

So if you are confident that the value of the constant won't change, use a const.

public const int CM_IN_A_METER = 100;

But if you have a constant that may change (e.g. w.r.t. precision).. or when in doubt, use a readonly.

public readonly float PI = 3.14;

Update: Aku needs to get a mention because he pointed this out first. Also I need to plug where I learned this: Effective C# - Bill Wagner

Best Answer

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C# – the difference between String and string in C#

This is the style that Microsoft tends to use in their examples.

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