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Proper way to set DateTime format of a Sharepoint list item datetime property

Tony Testa posted on December 18, 2007 00:00

I spent a good part of the day today trying to figure out how to pragmatically add files to a document library. I had to read in a directory of files, parse their names and add them to the document library. In addition to adding the file, I needed to set a few fields, one of them being a Date and Time column/property. Easy enough, right? Well, I quickly found out it wasn't as easy as I originally thought.

My first attempt went as you would think. I tried to set the Property to a DateTime object.

    1 //create the SP file to upload and set its initial properties 
    2 SPFile fileToUpload = docLib.RootFolder.Files.Add(fl.Name, binFile, true); 
    3 fileToUpload.Properties["Name"] = string.Format("{0} {1}", fileNameParts[1], fileNameParts[0]); 
    4 fileToUpload.Properties["DateField"] = DateTime.Parse("12/18/2007"); 
    5 fileToUpload.Update(); 

As I thought, that worked fine. The problem came when i hit a date that was prior to 1/1/1970.

    1 //create the SP file to upload and set its initial properties 
    2 SPFile fileToUpload = docLib.RootFolder.Files.Add(fl.Name, binFile, true); 
    3 fileToUpload.Properties["Name"] = string.Format("{0} {1}", fileNameParts[1], fileNameParts[0]); 
    4 fileToUpload.Properties["DateField"] = DateTime.Parse("1/1/1968"); 
    5 fileToUpload.Update(); 

It throws the following error : "Microsoft.SharePoint.SPInvalidPropertyException: Date Times before 1/1/1970 are not supported.". So anything after 1/1/1970 works fine, but anything prior to 1/1/1970 throws an error?!?!?!?!?

I searched high and low all over Google, the forums, etc. Nothing, relating to anything with .NET, DateTime object, and a 1/1/1970 barrier. So after doing a bunch of trial and error, I stumbled upon it.
Sharepoint expects Date and Time columns in UTC format. So what does that mean?

A UTC date should come in the form : yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ where T and Z are literals.
So here is the updated code that worked for me.

    1 //create the SP file to upload and set its initial properties 
    2 SPFile fileToUpload = docLib.RootFolder.Files.Add(fl.Name, binFile, true); 
    3 fileToUpload.Properties["Name"] = string.Format("{0} {1}", fileNameParts[1], fileNameParts[0]); 
    4 //Date's are stored in SP in the format :    yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ssZ   T/Z are literals 
    5 fileToUpload.Properties["DateField"] = "1950-01-01T00:00:00Z"; 
    6 fileToUpload.Update(); 