How best to convert types between database and web service call?

I am developing an ASP.Net C# web application that should ac开发者_开发知识库cess the database using ODBC then pass the gotten data to a web service.

I face a problem in converting date as I tried using Convert.ToDateTime and parseDate to change the format of the dates acccessed from the database and change it to the suitable formate needed for the web service. for example:

the database datetime storage format is "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt"
07/15/2011 03:05:10 pm
the webservice datetime storage format is "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss"
15/07/2011 15:00:00

How I can change and convert these different formats for datetime data types so that the web service accepts it properly?

Also, there is a boolean data type in the web service which is stored as integer in the database, how I can handle that so that the web service accepts the boolean data type in a correct way?

for example:

the isGiven variable may have the value of 0 in database while it should be false or true in the web service as it accepts it as boolean only.
is there an implicit conversion between int and bool data types?

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the database datetime storage format is "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt"

No, it's not. The database doesn't store the datetime value as a formatted string, it stores it numerically representing a point in time. When you read it you get it as a DateTime value, not a string.

To convert the DateTime value to the format dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss you just use a custom format string:

theDate.ToString("dd'/'MM'/'yyyy HH':'mm':'ss")

Converting an integer to a boolean can either be done when you read it from the database:

cast(isGiven as bit)

or afterwards:

reader["isGiven"] != 0

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I may be over-simplifying, but couldn't your web service method just accept a bool and put the mapping logic inside the service call (or a helper method) before you write to the database?

public void DoSomething(bool myBool)
{
    var myBoolConverted = myBool ? 1 : 0;

    myDatabase.DoSomething(myBoolConverted);
}

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This should work:

    string s = "07/15/2011 03:05:10 pm";
    // get database date / time
    DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(s, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US"));

    // format as web service date / time
    string ws = dt.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss", CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US"));