How to represent ISO 8601 Dates?

[TonyValenti]

Hi All,
The DateTime and DateTimeOffset classes have a min value of 0001-01-01.
I need to represent ISO 8601 dates which includes date=0000-01-01.

(Yes, we're actually dealing with issues because of year zero in client data).

Does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with this?

[huoyaoyuan]

Well, if the value range is clear, and the format is fixed, I think special-casing should be easiest. You can transfer it in a custom struct, and borrow regular DateTime/DateOnly operations when it does not fall into the special range.
Or you can reject it earlier to prevent polluting the business code.

because of year zero in client data

It shouldn't be correct data, so it's some sort of fixing corruption.

[TonyValenti]

@huoyaoyuan - Except 0000-01-01 is a valid ISO 8601 date.

[huoyaoyuan]

I mean it shouldn't be a realistic date in your business logic.

[Clockwork-Muse]

@huoyaoyuan - year-0 dates are used for astronomy calculations, possibly other areas. Although if that was the reason, I'd expect the lack of BC/BCE/negative years to also be a problem.

[Clockwork-Muse]

@TonyValenti -
For better date/time in C#, use NodaTime.