Format DateTime in Xamarin Forms to Device Format string

With the current Xamarin Forms version, you may try:

// This does not work with PCL
var date1 = DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString();

This gives the date in a format specific to the device's locale and works across platforms.

Alternatively:

var date1 = DateTime.Now.ToString(CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern);

For specific format the following can be tried:

var date1 = DateTime.Now.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy");

The first and the last one look pretty cool to me. But only the second and the third options work with PCL.

As I could not find any PCL implementation I used DI to implement the requirement.

Usage in PCL :

DependencyService.Get<IDeviceInfoService>()?.ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime.Now);    
DependencyService.Get<IDeviceInfoService>()?.ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime.Now);

PCL :

public interface IDeviceInfoService
{
    string ConvertToDeviceShortDateFormat(DateTime inputDateTime);    
    string ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime inputDateTime);
}

Android :

[assembly: Dependency(typeof(DeviceInfoServiceImplementation))]
namespace Droid.Services
{
    public class DeviceInfoServiceImplementation : IDeviceInfoService
    {
        public string ConvertToDeviceShortDateFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            var dateFormat = Android.Text.Format.DateFormat.GetDateFormat(Android.App.Application.Context);
            var epochDateTime = Helper.ConvertDateTimeToUnixTime(inputDateTime, true);

            if (epochDateTime == null)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            using (var javaDate = new Java.Util.Date((long)epochDateTime))
            {
                return dateFormat.Format(javaDate);
            }
        }

        public string ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            var timeFormat = Android.Text.Format.DateFormat.GetTimeFormat(Android.App.Application.Context);
            var epochDateTime = Helper.ConvertDateTimeToUnixTime(inputDateTime, true);

            if (epochDateTime == null)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            using (var javaDate = new Java.Util.Date((long)epochDateTime))
            {
                return timeFormat.Format(javaDate);
            }
        }
    }
}

iOS :

[assembly: Dependency(typeof(DeviceInfoServiceImplementation))]
namespace iOS.Services
{
    public class DeviceInfoServiceImplementation : IDeviceInfoService
    {
        public string ConvertToDeviceShortDateFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            var timeInEpoch = Helper.ConvertDateTimeToUnixTime(inputDateTime);

            if (timeInEpoch == null)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            using (var dateInNsDate = NSDate.FromTimeIntervalSince1970((double)timeInEpoch))
            {
                using (var formatter = new NSDateFormatter
                {
                    TimeStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.None,
                    DateStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.Short,
                    Locale = NSLocale.CurrentLocale
                })
                {
                    return formatter.ToString(dateInNsDate);
                }
            }
        }

        public string ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            var timeInEpoch = Helper.ConvertDateTimeToUnixTime(inputDateTime);

            if (timeInEpoch == null)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            using (var dateInNsDate = NSDate.FromTimeIntervalSince1970((double)timeInEpoch))
            {
                using (var formatter = new NSDateFormatter
                {
                    TimeStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.Short,
                    DateStyle = NSDateFormatterStyle.None,
                    Locale = NSLocale.CurrentLocale
                })
                {
                    return formatter.ToString(dateInNsDate);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Windows :

[assembly: Dependency(typeof(DeviceInfoServiceImplementation))]
namespace WinPhone.Services
{
    public class DeviceInfoServiceImplementation : IDeviceInfoService
    {
        public string ConvertToDeviceShortDateFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            return inputDateTime.ToShortDateString();
        }

        public string ConvertToDeviceTimeFormat(DateTime inputDateTime)
        {
            return inputDateTime.ToShortTimeString();
        }
    }
}

Helper method :

private static readonly DateTime EpochDateTime = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
public static long? ConvertDateTimeToUnixTime(DateTime? date, bool isDatarequiredInMilliSeconds = false, DateTimeKind dateTimeKind = DateTimeKind.Local) => date.HasValue == false
            ? (long?)null
            : Convert.ToInt64((DateTime.SpecifyKind(date.Value, dateTimeKind).ToUniversalTime() - EpochDateTime).TotalSeconds) * (isDatarequiredInMilliSeconds ? 1000 : 1);