• Article

XAttribute Explicit Conversion (XAttribute to DateTime)

Microsoft Silverlight will reach end of support after October 2021. Learn more.

Cast the value of this XAttribute to a DateTime.

This API is not CLS-compliant. 

Namespace:  System.Xml.Linq
Assembly:  System.Xml.Linq (in System.Xml.Linq.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
Public Shared Narrowing Operator CType ( _
    attribute As XAttribute _
) As DateTime

public static explicit operator DateTime (
    XAttribute attribute
)

Parameters

Return Value

Type: System.DateTime
A DateTime that contains the content of this XAttribute.

Exceptions

Exception Condition
FormatException

The attribute does not contain a valid DateTime value.
ArgumentNullException

The attribute parameter is nulla null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic).

Remarks

The value space of an attribute or element that contains date and time content is closely related to the dates and times described in ISO 8601. When creating an attribute or element that contains date and time content, the attribute or element values are formatted per the W3C specification. See the W3C specification for more details.

Behavior is lax when casting to a DateTime from an attribute or element. Even if the attribute or element value is not formatted exactly per the W3C specification, the value is appropriately converted to a DateTime.

This conversion operator uses CultureInfo.InvariantCulture to convert from a DateTime.

Examples

The following example creates an attribute with date and time content. It then casts it to DateTime to retrieve the value.

Dim output As New StringBuilder
Dim root As XElement = _
    <Root
        Att=<%= New DateTimeOffset(New DateTime(2006, 10, 6, 12, 30, 0)) %>/>
output.Append(root)
output.Append(Environment.NewLine)

' casting from a strictly formatted XML attribute
Dim dt As DateTimeOffset = CType(root.Attribute("Att"), DateTimeOffset)
output.Append(String.Format("dt={0}", dt))
output.Append(Environment.NewLine)

OutputTextBlock.Text = output.ToString()

StringBuilder output = new StringBuilder();
XElement root = new XElement("Root",
    new XAttribute("Att", new DateTimeOffset(new DateTime(2006, 10, 6, 12, 30, 0)))
);
output.Append(root + Environment.NewLine);

// casting from a strictly formatted XML attribute
DateTimeOffset dt = (DateTimeOffset)root.Attribute("Att");
output.Append("dt=" + dt + Environment.NewLine);

OutputTextBlock.Text = output.ToString();

Version Information

Silverlight

Supported in: 5, 4, 3

Silverlight for Windows Phone

Supported in: Windows Phone OS 7.1, Windows Phone OS 7.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: Xbox 360, Windows Phone OS 7.0

Platforms

For a list of the operating systems and browsers that are supported by Silverlight, see Supported Operating Systems and Browsers.