> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://easyaf.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Temporal Types

> Working with date and time types in Restier

# Temporal Types

When using the Microsoft.Restier.Providers.EntityFramework provider, temporal types are now supported. The table below
shows how Temporal Types map to SQL Types:

|        EF Type        |      SQL Type      |      Edm Type      | Need ColumnAttribute? |
| :-------------------: | :----------------: | :----------------: | :-------------------: |
|    System.DateTime    | DateTime/DateTime2 | Edm.DateTimeOffset |           Y           |
| System.DateTimeOffset |   DateTimeOffset   | Edm.DateTimeOffset |           N           |
|    System.DateTime    |        Date        |      Edm.Date      |           Y           |
|    System.TimeSpan    |        Time        |    Edm.TimeOfDay   |           Y           |
|    System.TimeSpan    |        Time        |    Edm.Duration    |           N           |

The next sections illustrate how to use use temporal types in various scenarios.

## Edm.DateTimeOffset

Suppose you have an entity class `Person`, all the following code define `Edm.DateTimeOffset` properties in the
EDM model though the underlying SQL types are different (see the value of the `TypeName` property). You can see
Column attribute is optional here.

```csharp theme={"dark"}
using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;

public class Person
{
    public DateTime BirthDateTime1 { get; set; }

    [Column(TypeName = "DateTime")]
    public DateTime BirthDateTime2 { get; set; }

    [Column(TypeName = "DateTime2")]
    public DateTime BirthDateTime3 { get; set; }

    public DateTimeOffset BirthDateTime4 { get; set; }
}
```

## Edm.Date

The following code define an `Edm.Date` property in the EDM model.

```csharp theme={"dark"}
using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;

public class Person
{
    [Column(TypeName = "Date")]
    public DateTime BirthDate { get; set; }
}
```

## Edm.Duration

The following code define an `Edm.Duration` property in the EDM model.

```csharp theme={"dark"}
using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;

public class Person
{
    public TimeSpan WorkingHours { get; set; }
}
```

## Edm.TimeOfDay

The following code define an `Edm.TimeOfDay` property in the EDM model. Please note that you MUST NOT omit the
`ColumnTypeAttribute` on a `TimeSpan` property otherwise it will be recognized as an `Edm.Duration` as described above.

```csharp theme={"dark"}
using System;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;

public class Person
{
    [Column(TypeName = "Time")]
    public TimeSpan BirthTime { get; set; }
}
```

As before, if you have the need to override `ODataPayloadValueConverter`, please now change to override
`RestierPayloadValueConverter` instead in order not to break the payload value conversion specialized for these
temporal types.