how to deal with Unexpected date & time format's ?

Question

hi

i get date & time from Text file - to my string var in my C# program.

i need to convert this string var to datetime var.

how to do it, if i get unexpected type of date & time ?

and if i dont know the type of region on the host computer (when i Spread my program) ?

thank's in advance

Answer 1

Use TryParse which will return a boolean saying if the date is valid or not.

    string dateString = "03/01/2009 10:00 AM";
    CultureInfo culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
    DateTimeStyles styles DateTimeStyles.None;
    DateTime dateResult;

    if(DateTime.TryParse(dateString, culture, styles, out dateResult))
    {
        do something with dateResult
    }

TryParse docs

Answer 2

TryParse is what you want.

DateTime result;

if(!DateTime.TryParse(unpredictableDate, out result))
{
    throw new ArgumentException("Argument '" + unpredictableDate + "' was not a recognizable date format.");
}

Answer 3

DateTime.Parse() uses the culture settings from the PC where the app is running. That means the user can input the date formats of his culture.

If you do not want it this way specify the Invariant Culture when parsing then always english culture settings are assumed.

Answer 4

If you are enforcing a specific date/time format, try using DateTime.ParseExact.