C# Program to get current day of week

Use the DateTime.DayOfWeek property to get the current day of the week in C#. This property returns a DayOfWeek enumeration value representing the day.

Syntax

Following is the syntax to get the current day of the week −

DayOfWeek dayOfWeek = DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek;

You can also use DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek to include the current time −

DayOfWeek dayOfWeek = DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek;

Using DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek

The DateTime.Today property gets the current date with the time component set to 00:00:00. Using DayOfWeek on this returns the current day as an enumeration value −

using System;

public class Demo {
    public static void Main() {
        DayOfWeek wk = DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek;
        Console.WriteLine("Current day of the week: " + wk);
        Console.WriteLine("Day as integer: " + (int)wk);
    }
}

The output of the above code is −

Current day of the week: Wednesday
Day as integer: 3

Using DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek

You can also use DateTime.Now which includes the current time. The result for the day of week remains the same −

using System;

public class Demo {
    public static void Main() {
        DayOfWeek currentDay = DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek;
        Console.WriteLine("Today is: " + currentDay);
        
        // Display full date and time for reference
        Console.WriteLine("Full date and time: " + DateTime.Now);
    }
}

The output of the above code is −

Today is: Wednesday
Full date and time: 12/13/2023 2:30:45 PM

DayOfWeek Enumeration Values

The DayOfWeek enumeration contains seven values, each representing a day of the week. Sunday is 0, Monday is 1, and so on −

Using Switch Statement with DayOfWeek

You can use a switch statement to perform different actions based on the current day −

using System;

public class Demo {
    public static void Main() {
        DayOfWeek today = DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek;
        
        switch (today) {
            case DayOfWeek.Monday:
                Console.WriteLine("Start of the work week!");
                break;
            case DayOfWeek.Wednesday:
                Console.WriteLine("Midweek day!");
                break;
            case DayOfWeek.Friday:
                Console.WriteLine("TGIF - Thank God It's Friday!");
                break;
            case DayOfWeek.Saturday:
            case DayOfWeek.Sunday:
                Console.WriteLine("Weekend time!");
                break;
            default:
                Console.WriteLine("It's " + today);
                break;
        }
    }
}

The output of the above code is −

Midweek day!

Conclusion

The DateTime.DayOfWeek property provides a simple way to get the current day of the week as a DayOfWeek enumeration. You can use either DateTime.Today.DayOfWeek or DateTime.Now.DayOfWeek depending on whether you need just the date or the current date and time.