Is there a better way to trim a DateTime to a specific precision?

There are some good solutions presented here, but when I need to do this, I simply do:

DateTime truncDate;
truncDate = date.Date; // trim to day
truncDate = date.Date + TimeSpan.Parse(string.Format("{0:HH:00:00}", date)); // trim to hour
truncDate = date.Date + TimeSpan.Parse(string.Format("{0:HH:mm}", date)); // trim to minute
truncDate = date.Date + TimeSpan.Parse(string.Format("{0:HH:mm:ss}", date)); // trim to second

Hope it helps.

You could use an enumeration

public enum DateTimePrecision
{
  Hour, Minute, Second
}

public static DateTime TrimDate(DateTime date, DateTimePrecision precision)
{
  switch (precision)
  {
    case DateTimePrecision.Hour:
      return new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, date.Day, date.Hour, 0, 0);
    case DateTimePrecision.Minute:
      return new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, date.Day, date.Hour, date.Minute, 0);
    case DateTimePrecision.Second:
      return new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, date.Day, date.Hour, date.Minute, date.Second);
    default:
      break;
  }
}

and expand as required.

I like this method. Someone mentioned it was good to preserve the Date Kind, etc. This accomplishes that because you dont have to make a new DateTime. The DateTime is properly cloned from the original DateTime and it simply subtracts the remainder ticks.

public static DateTime FloorTime(DateTime dt, TimeSpan interval) 
{
  return dt.AddTicks(-1 * (dt.Ticks % interval.Ticks));
}

usage:

dt = FloorTime(dt, TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5)); // floor to the nearest 5min interval
dt = FloorTime(dt, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1)); // floor to the nearest second
dt = FloorTime(dt, TimeSpan.FromDays(1));    // floor to the nearest day

static class Program
{
    //using extension method:
    static DateTime Trim(this DateTime date, long roundTicks)
    {
        return new DateTime(date.Ticks - date.Ticks % roundTicks, date.Kind);
    }

    //sample usage:
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now);
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Trim(TimeSpan.TicksPerDay));
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Trim(TimeSpan.TicksPerHour));
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Trim(TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond));
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Trim(TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute));
        Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now.Trim(TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond));
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

}