`DateTime.Month`

This C# property returns an integer. This value indicates the month in the year, from January to December. With a format string, we can get month names.

The DateTime type provides month-related functionality in .NET. We do not need to create it ourselves: to save time and increase program reliability, it is best not to.

First program

Month is an instance property getter in the language, which means you must call it on a DateTime instance, but not with parentheses.

Then It returns an integer that is 1-based: January is equal to 1, and December is equal to 12.

Detail The example code uses the MMM format string for short, 3-letter month strings.

Also You can use the MMMM string (four Ms) for the complete month name. So Sep turns into September.

using System;

// Get the current month integer.
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;

// Write the month integer and then the three-letter month.
Console.WriteLine(now.Month);
Console.WriteLine(now.ToString("MMM"));5
May

Example 2

You may need to display the month name in a three-letter format. This is equivalent, in English, to taking a substring of the first three letters.

But Using the three Ms next to each other may be easier and clearer for your code.

using System;

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
// Loop over all 12 months.
for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++)
{
    Console.WriteLine(now.ToString("MMM"));
    now = now.AddMonths(1);
}Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan

Full month format

In this example, we display the month string in full. We need to specify four Ms next to each other in the format string.

Here The program loops over the 11 next months after the time of writing, which happens to be in February.

using System;

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
for (int i = 0; i < 12; i++)
{
    // Full month format.
    Console.WriteLine(now.ToString("MMMM"));
    now = now.AddMonths(1);
}February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January

Arrays

We may want to have a 12-element array with all the month strings in it. This would allow us to access the month string by its index (1 being equal to January).

And This may require a 13-element array. Using a static array to cache strings is often faster than accessing them from the framework.

Summary

The base class library provides powerful DateTime methods. We do not need to manually type in month names in most cases. We can enumerate all the string values.