Current date and time - Default in MVC razor

ZVenue picture ZVenue · Aug 18, 2011 · Viewed 111.4k times · Source

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)

Answer

Jamie Dixon picture Jamie Dixon · Aug 18, 2011

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;}
}