MonthCalendar

This is a selectable calendar widget. On the MonthCalendar, a user can select a day, or a range of days. The user can also scroll through the months.

To get started, you can double-click on the MonthCalendar icon in the Toolbox pane in Visual Studio. This control provides many useful options.

BoldedDates

MonthCalendar has several properties related to bolded dates. In the MonthCalendar, some dates can be bolded to indicate an important event.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication3
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Set the BoldedDates property to a DateTime array.
            // ... Use array initializer syntax to add tomorrow and two days after.
            monthCalendar1.BoldedDates = new DateTime[]
            {
                DateTime.Today.AddDays(1),
                DateTime.Today.AddDays(2),
                DateTime.Today.AddDays(4)
            };
        }
    }
}

MaxDate, MinDate

The MonthControl has properties called MaxDate and MinDate—these indicate the maximum and minimum selectable dates. These dates give you a lot of range to select dates.

MinDate:   1/1/1753
MaxDate: 12/31/9998

Color properties

Another set of properties you can edit on the MonthCalendar are the color properties. These allow you to set your control to be in various colors.

BackColor
ForeColor
TitleBackColor
TitleForeColor
TrailingForeColor

SelectionRange, as well as SelectionStart and SelectionEnd, allow you to get the dates that are selected in the form of two DateTime values. These are the start and end dates.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication3
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // You can acquire the range using this property accessor.
            SelectionRange range = monthCalendar1.SelectionRange;
            DateTime start = range.Start;
            DateTime end = range.End;

            // Alternatively, you can use the SelectionStart and End properties.
            DateTime startB = monthCalendar1.SelectionStart;
            DateTime endB = monthCalendar1.SelectionEnd;
        }
    }
}

DateChanged

The MonthCalendar provides an event-driven user interface and you can provide and hook up event handlers to execute code on user actions.

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace WindowsFormsApplication3
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void monthCalendar1_DateChanged(object sender, DateRangeEventArgs e)
        {
            // The user changed the current selection.
            MessageBox.Show("DateChanged: " + monthCalendar1.SelectionRange.ToString());
        }
    }
}

ShowToday

There are 2 properties that allow you to change whether and how the "Today" text at the bottom of the calendar appears—ShowToday, and ShowTodayCircle.

The MonthCalendar control in Windows Forms provides a fast and easy-to-use calendar. It is used to allow a user to indicate a date.