Parse a string to a DateTime object

Question

I'm trying to parse a String into a DateTime object but it seems to always default the month to 1. So let's say I give it a string 30/05/1970 it ends up being converted to DateTime object with the month value equal to 1.

Here's the code:

    public static DateTime ToDateTime(this String value, String format)
    {
        Contract.Requires(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(value));
        Contract.Requires(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(format));

        DateTime date;
        if (DateTime.TryParseExact(value, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date))
        {
            return date;
        }           

        throw new ArgumentException("Input value is not a valid date.");
    }

Note that the format that is being passed to the method is dd/mm/yyyy.

Any thoughts?

Oded · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-10 13:40:27Z

10

You are using the wrong format specifier for months.

It is MM not mm. You are parsing months as minutes at the moment.

Use dd/MM/yyyy.

answered May 10, 2012 at 13:40

Oded

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3 Comments

Kassem Over a year ago

I've been stuck with this for like 2 hours! I tried all sorts of things but I never thought of changing the format. Thanks for pointing this out! Much appreciated :)

MiMo Over a year ago

@Kassem: you should probably mark this as a correct answer then

Kassem Over a year ago

@MiMo: Yup, I did. I just had to wait until StackOverflow allows it.

animaonline · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-10 13:42:36Z

1

You're probably specifying an incorrect format.

Do this instead

var dt= ToDateTime("30/05/1970", "dd/MM/yyyy");

And take a look at this: http://www.csharp-examples.net/string-format-datetime/

answered May 10, 2012 at 13:42

animaonline

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