Proper C# classes for representation FHIR's date and datetime

[krvital]

As a developer using Aidbox .NET SDK, I want to have C# objects for date and datetime representations so that I can format dates and datetimes to strings without prior conversion.

For example, field Patient.BirthDate can be DateOnly object

[krvital]

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/data/xml/mapping-xml-data-types-to-clr-types

[krvital]

The problem here is that here is no direct correspondence between FHIR and C# types. In FHIR date type can be represented as year ("2000"), year month ("2000-01") or date.

So there are options of how to implement date and dateTime types conversion FHIR <=> C#

Option 1

Do not convert date and dateTimes. Use strings for dates

Option 2

Convert FHIR date and dateTime to C# DateTime object.

• On read from FHIR database into C# we can use custom json serializers to convert year or year month to DateTime.
• On write to FHIR database from C# we can force writing it as full date

Option 3

Provide a client option which will enable/disable date and dateTime serialization

Option 4

Use FHIR wrapper types for Date and DateTime instead of C# native types