How to specify that DateTime objects retrieved from EntityFramework should be DateTimeKind.UTC

c# datetime entity-framework-6 utc
William picture William · Apr 7, 2015 · Viewed 21.9k times · Source

I have C# program where all DateTime objects are DateTimeKind.UTC. When saving the objects to the database it stores UTC as expected. However, when retrieving them, they are DateTimeKind.Unspecified. Is there a way to tell Entity Framework (Code First) when creating DateTime objects in C# to always use DateTimeKind.UTC?

Answer

André Pena picture André Pena · Apr 7, 2015

No, there's not. And it's actually DateTimeKind.Unspecified.

However, if you are concerned about supporting multiple timezones, you should consider using DateTimeOffset. It's like a regular DateTime, except that it does not represent a "perspective" of time, it represents an absolute view, in which 3PM (UTC - 3) equals 4PM (UTC - 2). DateTimeOffset contains both the DateTime and the time zone and it's supported by both EntityFramework and SQL Server.

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