'Check if todays date exists in a table with Entity Framework

I have a database table with columns of type dateTime.

Now I need to see if there already is a row with today's date, but I don't know how to compare the column with the current date without the hour, minutes, seconds.

Basically I have 2022-02-04 14:06:21.080 and I need to check if there is a row created on 2022-02-04.

I'm looking for something like

if (db.dates.Where(x => x.SentDate == Date.Now).Count() > 0)
{
     // Do something
}
else
{
     // Do something else
}

I only need to see if it has a date from today it doesn't matter what time it was created.

Any help is much appreciated!

c++sharpasp.netentity-frameworkentity-framework-core


Solution 1:[1]

You can check a date range

var today = DateTime.Today;
var tomorrow = today.AddDays(1);

if(db.dates.Where(x => x.SentDate >= today && x.SentDate < tomorrow) ...

The DateTime.Today Property gets the current date with the time component set to 00:00:00.

Note that we test the lower bound with >= today (with today meaning today at 00:00:00) but the upper one with < tomorrow, since we do not want to include tomorrow at 00:00:00.

Solution 2:[2]

If you're filtering for a specific date you can use the DateTime.Date property on both DateTime objects. This will compare the date component of the DateTime:

db.dates.Where(x => x.SentDate.Date == DateTime.Now.Date)
// or
db.dates.Where(x => x.SentDate.Date == DateTime.Today)

If you have a nullable DateTime? column, then you use the Value property along with HasValue:

db.dates.Where(x => x.SentDate.HasValue 
                 && x.SentDate.Value.Date == DateTime.Today)

Unfortunately, expression trees do not support the null propagation operator ?. so we need to use the above method instead.

DateTime.Date can also be used for date ranges, but take care with the upper bound.

PS: DateTime.Today is the same as DateTime.Now.Date

Solution 3:[3]

Another way is to convert the dates to string and compare.

 if(db.dates.Any(m=>m.SentDate.ToString("d") == DateTime.Now.ToString("d"))){
    //Do something else
    }
    else
    {
     // Do something else
    }

Solution 4:[4]

If you use MS SQL Server you can use a special function EF.Functions.DateDiff that was created to be used with EF. It can count datetime difference from seconds to months. DateDiffDay is used to count days.

var  dateTimeNow = DateTime.Now;
if (db.dates.Any(x => EF.Functions.DateDiffDay(x.SentDate , dateTimeNow) == 0 )
{
    // ... there are today's dates
}
// ...

Sources

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Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1
Solution 2
Solution 3 Shatsuki
Solution 4 D M

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