How to set the default value to sharepoint date time field programmatically?

Question

I want to set the default value for the sharepoint's built-in field ArticleStartDate programmatically. But I am unable to do so. My code is as follows:

SPField articleDate = currentWeb.Fields[FieldNames.ArticleStartDate];
if (articleDate != null)
{
    articleDate.DefaultValue = Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility.CreateISO8601DateTimeFromSystemDateTime(DateTime.Today);
    articleDate.Update(true);
}

I debugged the program and found the error at the statement SPField articleDate = currentWeb.Fields[FieldNames.ArticleStartDate]; after executing this statement control directly goes to the Catch() statemenets and displays the error message only false. What should I do?

Answer 1

Try with the following code,

SPFieldDateTime articleDate =(SPFieldDateTime ) currentWeb.Fields[FieldNames.ArticleStartDate];

Where,

SPFieldDateTime - Represents a field that contains date and time values.