DateTimeOffset and time zone change

Question

5.00/5 (1 vote)

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Consider a simplee code:

C#

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    while (true)
    {
        Console.ReadKey();
        Console.WriteLine(DateTimeOffset.Now.ToString());
    }
}

Each time I press any key, I get the current time with timezone.
Now when I change the timezone, and again "ask the date" - I get the same time, i.e. no changes are applied. After running the application again, the changes take place and I see at last the time from the timezone, I set.

Could somebody explain me, how to get the actual time+timezone without reloading the application?

Thanks

Posted 2-Jul-12 18:16pm

kosmoh

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Comments

Peter_in_2780 3-Jul-12 0:30am

My guess is that the framework reads the timezone information from the OS when your application starts. Maybe a call to one of the TimeZone routines after your ReadKey() might refresh it. Try it and tell us what happens.

4 solutions

Solution 2

Check with TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone[^] to see if the process got notified about the change. Timezone is thread context, it will not follow the system timezone changes. You have to catch such events. As I know there is no specific event, but near: see this topic: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9725180/c-sharp-event-to-detect-daylight-saving-or-even-manual-time-change[^]

Posted 2-Jul-12 18:55pm

Zoltán Zörgő

Solution 1

i think this will help you

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetimeoffset.aspx[^]

Posted 2-Jul-12 18:44pm

2irfanshaikh

Solution 4

DateTimeOffset.Now uses TimeZoneInfo and it caches timezone on startup.

To clear the cache call:

C#

TimeZoneInfo.ClearCachedData();

This should solve your problem :-)

Posted 14-May-14 0:21am

Frode Evensen

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kosmoh · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-02T23:12:00

Well, the problem is, that without restart of the application, DateTimeOffset.Now will return the time from the start timezone. I can`t afford restart of mine application, but I still need get the exact time after the timezone was changed.
The possible solution (a bad one, but it works) - is to run a process, that returns a DateTimeOffset.Now and that`s all.

See the code of this process:

C#

using System;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace DateTimePick
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DateTimeOffset offset = DateTimeOffset.Now;
            Console.WriteLine(offset.Offset.TotalHours);
        }
    }
}

Now I`ve got an executable, that prints offset hours as a double.
In my "main" program I add a class, which runs this process each time the system time is changed (thanks to Zoltán Zörgő for his advice).

C#

public class DateTimeExactPicker
    {
        static TimeSpan currentOffset;

        private static string getExactDateTime()
        {
            Process p = new Process();
            p.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
            p.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            p.StartInfo.FileName = "DateTimePick.exe";
            p.Start();
            string output = p.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            p.WaitForExit();
            return output;

        }

        public static DateTimeOffset Now
        {
            get { return new DateTimeOffset(DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.Ticks + currentOffset.Ticks, currentOffset); }
        }

        static DateTimeExactPicker()
        {
            SystemEvents.TimeChanged += new EventHandler(SystemEvents_TimeChanged);
            currentOffset = DateTimeOffset.Now.Offset;
        }

        static void SystemEvents_TimeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            double hoursOffset = double.Parse(getExactDateTime());
            TimeSpan offset = TimeSpan.FromHours(hoursOffset);
            currentOffset = offset;
        }
    }

Now my test program looks like this:

C#

static void Main(string[] args)
       {
           while (true)
           {
               Console.WriteLine(DateTimeExactPicker.Now);
               Console.ReadKey();
           }
       }

The output is:

03.07.2012 12:03:03 +03:00
03.07.2012 12:03:04 +03:00
03.07.2012 12:03:04 +03:00
03.07.2012 12:03:04 +03:00

...after I change the timezone

03.07.2012 15:33:16 +06:30
03.07.2012 15:33:16 +06:30
03.07.2012 15:33:17 +06:30
03.07.2012 15:33:17 +06:30
03.07.2012 15:33:17 +06:30

...now I`ve changed it back

03.07.2012 12:03:29 +03:00
03.07.2012 12:03:29 +03:00

Listening to TimeChanged event is a good idea, because running the process each time, I need the exact time value might be too expensive.