Date format in my mvc C# inventory management application

Okay thank you Mr Prasad Raveendran

I will check and revert please.

Hi Emmmanuel FIADUFE,

Yes, you need to apply the changes in your codebase and then republish the application.

You will not see the Global.asax.cs file in the published folder because it is a backend (code-behind) file. During publishing, it is compiled into a DLL and included in the application’s binaries.

When published, the code in Global.asax.cs becomes part of an assembly (DLL), typically named App_global.asax.dll, which is placed in the bin folder of your published application.

Or should make the changes on my local machine and republish the application again since I can't find the Global.asax file you are referring to.

Pls on the somee server, I can only see one Global.asax file in my file manager directory, I open other folders such as bin and views but nothing like that is there except the one I was talking about, I'm saying this because you said I place the code at the wrong location.

What went wrong (very important)

You accidentally put C# code inside Global.asax, which is a markup file, not a C# file.

This line proves it:

Parser Error Message: The content in the application file is not valid.

And this part:

Line 2: protected void Application_BeginRequest()

• ASP.NET is trying to parse markup, but it finds raw C# code instead.

Correct structure (this matters):

You should have TWO separate files:

1. Global.asax (markup file – VERY SMALL)

This file should contain ONLY ONE LINE:

<%@ Application Language="C#" Inherits="SmartRestaurantManagement.MvcApplication" %>

• Do NOT put methods here

• Do NOT put { } here

• Do NOT put C# logic here

2.Global.asax.cs (code-behind – C# logic goes here)

This is where your method belongs.

using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;
using System.Web;

namespace SmartRestaurantManagement
{
    public class MvcApplication : HttpApplication
    {
        protected void Application_BeginRequest()
        {
            var culture = new CultureInfo("en-GB");

            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture;
            Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;
        }
    }
}

• Method is inside the class

• Correct namespace

• Correct file

• No parser error

Why your current setup fails:

You effectively have this (invalid):

<%@ Application ... %>
protected void Application_BeginRequest()
{
   ...
}

ASP.NET does not allow raw C# inside .asax markup.

Quick checklist to fix it:

1. Open Global.asax

   • Leave only the directive line

2. Open Global.asax.cs

   • Put Application_BeginRequest inside MvcApplication

3. Make sure:

   • Namespace matches Inherits="SmartRestaurantManagement.MvcApplication"

4. Clean & rebuild

5. Reload the site

Bottom line

• Your culture code is correct

• It was placed in the wrong file

• Move it to Global.asax.cs inside the class

• Your app will run and dates will format correctly on Somee

When I open the Global.asax.cs, I found this line of code and I pasted your code below.

<%@ Application Codebehind="Global.asax.cs" Inherits="SmartRestaurantManagement.MvcApplication" Language="C#" %>

Hello Jignesh Kumar

Where do I place your code.

Hello Raghunath Bhukan

After modifying my Global.asax.cs, with your code this is the error message that came up when when I went to the page.

protected void Application_BeginRequest()

{

var culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB");

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture;

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;

}

Parser Error

Description: An error occurred during the parsing of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific parse error details and modify your source file appropriately.

Parser Error Message: The content in the application file is not valid.

Source Error:

Line 1: <%@ Application Codebehind="Global.asax.cs" Inherits="SmartRestaurantManagement.MvcApplication" Language="C#" %> Line 2: protected void Application_BeginRequest() Line 3: { Line 4: var culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB");

Line 1:  <%@ Application Codebehind="Global.asax.cs" Inherits="SmartRestaurantManagement.MvcApplication" Language="C#" %>
Line 2:  protected void Application_BeginRequest()
Line 3:  {
Line 4:  var culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB");

Root Cause (Why it works locally but not on Somee)

1. SQL date has NO format
In SQL Server:

date

• Does not store any format (yyyy-MM-dd, dd-MM-yyyy, etc.)

• It stores only a pure date value

• The format is applied only when the date is converted to a string

2. Different server culture settings

• Local machine ? usually en-GB or similar

• Somee server ? usually en-US

Because of this:

• en-GB displays dates as dd-MM-yyyy

• en-US displays dates as MM-dd-yyyy

This explains why your formatting works locally but not after hosting.

Why using nvarchar for dates is dangerous

You are absolutely right to be concerned.

If dates are stored as strings:

• Incorrect sorting
  Example: "02-01-2024" appears greater than "15-12-2023"

• Broken filtering using BETWEEN, >=, <=

• Poor query performance

• SQL date functions cannot be used

• Indexes become ineffective

For production systems, dates should never be stored as strings.

Correct & Professional Solution (Best Practice)

1. Keep SQL column as DATE or DATETIME

SaleDate DATE

2. NEVER format dates in SQL

Avoid doing this:

SELECT CONVERT(varchar, SaleDate, 105)

Formatting should not happen in SQL.

3. Format dates in MVC (NOT SQL)

In Razor views:

@Model.SaleDate.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy")

Or:

@Html.DisplayFor(m => m.SaleDate, "{0:dd-MM-yyyy}")

4. For input fields (Create / Edit)

HTML date inputs require yyyy-MM-dd:

This is mandatory for browser compatibility.

5. Set Global Culture in MVC (IMPORTANT)

This step fixes the Somee hosting issue permanently.

In Global.asax.cs (ASP.NET MVC):

protected void Application_BeginRequest()
{
    var culture = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB");
    System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = culture;
    System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = culture;
}

This forces dd-MM-yyyy regardless of the server’s regional settings.

6. Filtering sales data (SAFE way)

Always filter using DateTime, not strings:

var sales = db.Sales
    .Where(s => s.SaleDate >= fromDate && s.SaleDate <= toDate)
    .ToList();

Benefits:

• Correct results

• Uses SQL indexes

• Fast and reliable

What NOT to do

• Do not store dates as nvarchar

• Do not rely on SQL formatting

• Do not compare date strings

• Do not assume hosting culture matches local culture

Summary (What you should do now)

• Keep SQL column as DATE

• Set application culture to en-GB

• Format dates only in MVC views

• Filter data using DateTime, not strings

This approach is industry-standard, scalable, and production-safe.

Note - Use UTC if ANY of these are true:

• Users are in multiple time zones

• You log events (sales, audits, transactions)

• You may expand to other countries later

• You want consistent timestamps across servers

Hello,

You can do this on your razor page,

@Model.SaleDate.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy")

Or if nullable:

@Model.SaleDate?.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy")

If model binding / parsing is failing on Somee : Explicitly parse with culture:

DateTime.ParseExact(
    inputDate,
    "dd-MM-yyyy",
    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
);