c# - Convert DateTime in DataRow to a formatted date string

Question

I'm hoping that there is something I am not seeing clearly, but to simplify, I have the below code

foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
{
  row["StartOn"] = Convert.ToDateTime(row["StartOn"].ToString()).ToString("MMM dd").ToString();
}

If I run the below code I get “Aug 09”

Convert.ToDateTime(row["StartOn"].ToString()).ToString("MMM dd").ToString();

If I look to see what is in row[“StartOn”] after this change it contains “8/9/2016 12:00:00 AM”

I'm unable to format my DataRow to an "MMM dd" format

Answer 1

StartOn is apparently a DateTime type. DateTime types do NOT have a format. They are an object that specifies year, month, date, and time (among other things). All you are doing in your conversions is stripping out the time so that the new datetime has a time of 12:00 am.