Converting Unusual DateTime String to DateTime Object

Question

I'm working with a log file that is giving me a date string that looks like so:

09/Feb/2012:00:38:48

I've been looking at different pages online about converting dates such as the MSDN site, but none of them show a date quite like this one.

Do I need to manually reformat the string to look similar to:

2012-02-09T00:38:48.0000000

Or is there a way to have this actually converted?

AdaTheDev · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-06 21:52:30Z

6

You can use DateTime.TryParseExact to parse a string to a DateTime from any format you specify. There's a load of examples the bottom of this MSDN ref.

answered Mar 6, 2012 at 21:52

AdaTheDev

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3 Comments

Jon Skeet Over a year ago

@MordecaiX7: You want MMM - see my example.

AdaTheDev Over a year ago

Use MMM which represents the shorthand month name as per your case. Check out the full reference for the options for formatting here: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx

Apex Coder Over a year ago

Ah I didn't realize I could tell the parser what format the date is in. Thanks.

Jon Skeet · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-06 21:57:56Z

As stated by AdaTheDev, DateTime.TryParseExact is the way forward here. As per the MSDN page on "custom date and time format strings" you want MMM for the abbreviated month name.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

class Test
{
    static void Main() 
    {
        string text = "09/Feb/2012:00:38:48";
        DateTime value;
        if (DateTime.TryParseExact(text, "dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss",
                                   CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                                   DateTimeStyles.None,
                                   out value))
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Success! {0}", value);
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Failed");
        }
    }
}

Note the use of CultureInfo.InvariantCulture - it doesn't look like you should use the current culture for example.

(Of course, you could use Noda Time instead ;)

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