Parse string to DateTime

Question

Hi! I have a source where dates comes in this string form:

   Sat Sep 22 13:15:03 2018

Is there any easy way I can parse that as a datetime in C#? I've tried with DateTime.(Try)Parse, but it doesn't seem to recognize this specific format...

Answer 1

It looks like C# can parse it normally, ignore this.

Answer 2

Try DateTime.ParseExact

This code takes your date string and applies a format to create a DateTime object.

CultureInfo provider = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;

string dateString = "Sat Sep 22 13:12:03 2018";
string format = "ddd MMM dd HH':'mm':'ss yyyy";

DateTime result = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, format, provider);

Answer 3

You should prefer DateTime.ParseExact and TryParseExact; these methods let you specify the expected format(s) in your program.

The DateTime.Parse and TryParse methods are dangerous because they accept the current date/time format configured on the machine where the code is running -- which the user can change from the default -- along with a couple of culture-neutral formats. In other words, the user can change settings in Control Panel and break Parse/TryParse.

Answer 4

var str = "Sat Sep 22 13:15:03 2018";
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(str, "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Answer 5

This works:

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact ("Sat Sep 22 13:15:03 2018", "ddd MMM d HH:mm:ss yyyy", null)