EP 17 : Noda Time , a better date and time API for .NET

Read Time : 2 Mins

In today’s newsletter we are going to discuss

• What is Noda Time

• Why we should use it over default Date Time

• How to use it in .NET

What is Noda Time

Noda Time is a Nuget Package / Library developed by Jon Skeet with 96M downloads (until today), it is an alternative for dealing with date and time. If you are familiar with Java world then Noda Time is C# version of Joda Time

Why we should use it over default Date Time

1. Lack of clarity in DateTime especially when comparing local and UTC times

2. DateTimeKind property and various operations like ToUniversalTime() and ToLocalTime() can lead to unexpected results

3. DateTime does not provide a comprehensive solution for handling time zones.

4. TimeZoneInfo, used in .NET, relies on Windows time zone IDs, which may differ from widely used Olson (tz) identifiers

5. Unfortunately humanity did’ not agree on single calendar (Gregorian, Julian, Coptic and Buddhist) , NodaTime covers this space which default lacks.

6. Instead of maintaining offset in default Noda gives you facility of using ZonedDateTime

7. I love their documentation , I have not seen such an amazing documentation yet. They really care and understand the needs of users

If I could not satisfy you then Mr. Jon Skeet will hopefully, Read this blog of Jon Skeet for in depth

How to use it in .NET

It is quite simple , you just need to install these Nuget packages

• NodaTime

• NodaTime.Testing

• NodaTime.Serialization.JsonNet

These are few types available in .NET with NodaTime

1. LocalDate including day,month,year , calendar

2. DateTimeZone - To shift in a specific time zone , pass it Iana

3. ZonedClock - A clock associated with time zone

4. Period - To calculate time difference in calendrical terms

5. Duration - Fixed length of elapsed time (irrespective of calendar)

6. Instant - A instant on global timeline with nanosecond resolution

It is difficult to include all of them in this post , better visit documentation of NodaTime

Jon was born on June 19th, 1976 (Gregorian). How old is he now, in the UK time zone?

The more you explore it more interesting things you will find.

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