How to parse DateTime in this format? "Sun May 23 22:00:00 UTC+0300 2010"

Question

Guys,
This is a quick one, i wanna parse a date that comes in this format "Sun May 23 22:00:00 UTC+0300 2010"
Is this a valid UTC DateTime? And how to parse it? I tried :

DateTime newStartTime = DateTime.ParseExact(hdnNewStartTime.Value, "ddd MM dd HH:mm:ss UTC+0300 yyyy", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);

However, this didn't work, any help appreciated!

Answer 1

Sorry for my previous answer which was quite simplistic. Replace MM by MMM in your date format and it should be fine.

Answer 2

This isn't in a standard .NET format, so you'll probably have to parse it by hand. The UTC+0300 bit indicates the timezone, everything else is part of the date and time.

Answer 3

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(s,"ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss UTCzzzz yyyy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Answer 4

Its not a standard format, but you can still parse it.

        string format = "ddd mmm dd HH:mm:ss zzzzz yyyy";
        string temp = "Sun May 23 22:00:00 UTC+0300 2010";
        DateTime time = DateTime.ParseExact(temp, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Answer 5

From the example given, it isn't possible to tell if the month should be in the 3 letter form (Jan, Feb, May etc.) or in the full form (January, February, May etc.).

If it should be in the short form, use:

ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss UTCzzz yyyy

If it should be in the long form, use:

ddd MMMM dd HH:mm:ss UTCzzz yyyy

Details of the formatting specifiers available can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx

Answer 6

I tried the solution presented by @johncatfish and it does what I expect. I would presume that you actually want to keep the timezone information.

[Test()]
public void TestCaseWorks ()
{
    string format = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss UTCzzzzz yyyy";
    string temp = "Sun May 23 22:00:00 UTC+0300 2010";
    DateTime time = DateTime.ParseExact(temp, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

    Assert.AreEqual(DayOfWeek.Sunday, time.DayOfWeek);
    Assert.AreEqual(5, time.Month);
    Assert.AreEqual(23, time.Day);
    Assert.AreEqual(0, time.Minute);
    Assert.AreEqual(0, time.Second);
    Assert.AreEqual(2010, time.Year);

    // Below is the only actually useful assert -- making sure the
    // timezone was parsed correctly.

    // In my case, I am GMT-0700, the target time is GMT+0300 so
    // 22 + (-7 - +3) = 12 is the expected answer. It is an exercise
    // for the reader to make a robust test that will work in any
    // timezone ;).

    Assert.AreEqual(12, time.Hour);
}