How to format datatime for json - json

Question

I''m using EF to query the database using anonymous type.
here the code I use for EF
public JsonResult OverdueEventsCustom()
{
var eventCustomOverdue = _eventCustomRepository.FindOverdueEventsCustom();
return Json(eventCustomOverdue, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
public IQueryable<dynamic> FindOverdueEventsCustom()
{
DateTime dateTimeNow = DateTime.UtcNow;
DateTime dateTomorrow = dateTimeNow.Date.AddDays(1);
return db.EventCustoms.Where(x => x.DateTimeStart < dateTomorrow)
.Select(y => new { y.EventId, y.EventTitle, y.DateTimeStart});
}
Inspecting using the debugger I see the properties is in this format
Date = {16/08/2012 00:00:00}
The resultfor the JSON is
[{
"EventId": 1,
"EventTitle": "Homework Math",
"DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}, {
"EventId": 4,
"EventTitle": "Homework help with Annie",
"DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}, {
"EventId": 6,
"EventTitle": "Physic laboratory",
"DateTimeStart": "\/Date(1345108269310)\/"
}]
I need the the json in this format
"DateTimeStart": "(16/08/2012)"
Any idea what i'm doing wrong here? thanks for your help
Related articles
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/OnTheNightmareThatIsJSONDatesPlusJSONNETAndASPNETWebAPI.aspx
How do I format a Microsoft JSON date?

Answer 1

"\/Date(1345108269310)\/" is the correct way to pass a Date to javascript. The way I see it, you have two options here:
If you do not explicitly need the value as a date, you could just pass a string to the JSON variable, containing the pretty-printed date.
Something along the lines of:
DateTimeStart: String.Format("{0: dd-MM-yyyy}", myDate)
If you will still need to use the variable a a date in javascript (for calculations for example), the most consice and readably way would be to create a javascript function that converts said date into the pretty-printed string you want (I don't know if such a function already exists. It isn't too hard to create though:
function prettyDate(date) {
return date.getDate() + "-" + date.getMonth() + "-" + date.getFullYear();
}
I would suggest passing it along as a string from you code behind, as it is more readable. But that only works if you do not need to use the date except for displaying.