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converting a string to a DateTime format

I'm trying to parse 09/01/2015 00:00:00 to the format yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ using following method:
DateTime.ParseExact("09/01/2015 00:00:00", "yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ", (IFormatProvider)CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
But I'm getting String was not recognized as a valid DateTime
Can anyone tell me why? I believe 09/01/2015 00:00:00 is a valid DateTime format?

From DateTime.ParseExact
Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its
DateTime equivalent. The format of the string representation must
match a specified format exactly or an exception is thrown.
In your case, they are not.
I assume your 09 part is day numbers, you can use dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss format instead.
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact("09/01/2015 00:00:00",
"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Since CultureInfo already implements IFormatProvider, you don't need to explicitly cast it.
I don't understand this. So it means I first have to correct my string
and secondly I can do a ParseExact(). I thought ParseExact could
handle the given string...
ParseExact is not a magical method that can parse any formatted string you suplied. It can handle only if your string and format perfectly matches based on culture settings you used.

Try this code:
var text = "09/01/2015 00:00:00";
var format = "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss";
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact(text, format, (IFormatProvider)CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
You'll notice that the format must structurally match the text you're trying to parse exactly - hence the ParseExact name for the method.

The format does not match, you need to change 09/01/2015 into 2015-01-09 or theyyyy-MM-dd part into dd/MM/yyyy.

The ParseExact-method is no ultimate method that converts ANY dateformat into another one, it is simply to parse a given string into a datetime using the provided format. Thus if your inout does not match this format the method will throw that exception.
As a datetime is internally only a number there is no need to convert one format into another at all, so as long as you know your input-format you can build a date from it which has nothing to do with any formatting which you may need when you want to print that date to your output. In this case you WILL need a formatter.

As most people have stated the error is coming from the fact that the date in string format doesn't match the format you are saying it's in. You are saying that 09/01/2015 00:00:00 is in the format "yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ", which it's not, hence the error. To rectify this you need to either alter the format the string is in, or more likely, change the format you are saying the date is in. So change "yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ" to "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss".
In a more long term view how are you arriving at that date? Is it possible that the format may change (input but the user)? If so it might be better to try and avoid the error being thrown and handle it better with TryParseExact. To make use of this best I generally output a nullable DateTime and then check if it's null. If you don't do this then if the parse fails it will simply make the output datetime the minimum value.
Something like this should work:
public DateTime? StringToDate (string dateString, string dateFormat)
{
DateTime? dt;
DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, dateFormat, null, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, out dt);
return dt;
}
Then you can use it like this:
DateTime? MyDateTime = StringToDate("09/01/2015 00:00:00", "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
if(MyDateTime != null)
{
//do something
}

Another simple way to do this...
var dt = Convert.ToDateTime(Convert.ToDateTime("09/01/2015 00:00:00").ToString("yyyy-MM-ddThh:mm:ssZ"))

getting issue with conversion from string to DateTime

I am getting issue while converting string to DateTime.
The value I am receiving as "08-26-2015 10:14:57.898Z".
I am trying to convert the above string to DateTime.
My Code:
DateTime.ParseExact(element.Value,"MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss",CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
Exception:
String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

You have string with different format than you trying for conversion.
Try this
var input = "08-26-2015 10:14:57.898Z";
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(input, "MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm:ss.fff'Z'", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

You can use:
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("08-26-2015 10:14:57.898Z", "MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm:ss.fff'Z'", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If you use CultureInfo.CurrentCulture(or null) the slash / has a special meaning. It is replaced with the current culture's date separator. Since that is not - but / in US you get an exception. Read

Have you tried Convert.ToDateTime ?
I just tried with your string and it works fine :
var s = "08-26-2015 10:14:57.898Z";
var date = Convert.ToDateTime(s);

String s = "08-26-2015 10:14:57.898Z";
DateTime date;
DateTime.TryParse (s, out date);
Now date variable contains DateTime value you need.

Figuring out correct DateTime format in C#

I need to figure out how to get the 'when' variable in the right datetime format.
Its value is in: MM/yyyy format.
rt.Add(new RoadTrip()
{
Id = int.Parse(rec[0]),
Where = rec[1],
How = int.Parse(rec[2]),
When = DateTime.Parse(rec[3]),
WithWhat = rec[4]
});

You'll want to use DateTime.ParseExact to specify the format of the string that you want to parse to a date.
In your case it will probably use something like:
When = DateTime.ParseExact(rec[3], "MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

It sounds like you need to use DateTime.ParseExact
When = DateTime.ParseExact(rec[3], "MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
For a value of "10/2015" you will get a DateTime object with the value "10/1/2015 12;00:00 AM". Note that this will also throw a FormatException if the value does not match the format.

Convert a string to datetime format in asp .net

I have a date time string "12-24-2013 15:19:29" which is in "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss". I want to convert this string to datetime. But the format should not change.ie, it should be the same "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss" format.
When I used following method,
DateTime dt2 = DateTime.ParseExact(date31strin, "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
the format is changed to "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss". I have tried some other method also, but still getting this same format.

First, you should be parsing the string to a DateTime and then format it to the second format using ToString() method.
//Convert your string to a DateTime
DateTime dt2 = DateTime.ParseExact(date31strin,
"MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
//If you want to change the format
string secondFormat = dt2.ToString("Second format string");
Note: Date is a Date and it does not have a format. If you need to convert the string to a DateTime, first line of code is enough

You are not changing the format.
You are parsing a string into a DateTime object which does not have a format.
When you decide to present the DateTime, you can format it any way you wish.

to parse String to DateTime use method DateTime.TryParse (http://msdn.microsoft.com/cs-cz/library/ch92fbc1%28v=vs.110%29.aspx) and then use DateTime formating (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1%28v=vs.110%29.aspx) to output to aspx page

//frndzz if you are using j query and you don't convert date in(MM/dd/yyyy) to //(dd/MM/yyyy) then this code will help you
// i try it and i get the answer
string sd=txtmydate.Text //sd=04/27/2015 (MM-dd-yyyy) format
string [] sdate = sd.Split('-');
string fd = sdate[1];
fd=string.Concat(sdate[1],"-",sdate[0],"-",sdate[2]);
DateTime dt = Convert.ToDateTime(fd);
txtshow.Text = dt.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy");
//txtshow will show you date as 27-04-2015 (dd/MM/yyyy) format
thanks

How to convert string to DateTime:
string iDate = "Absent";
aEmployeeAttendence.Intime = DateTime.Parse(iDate);
//aEmployeeAttendence (object)
//Intime (field)

C# Datetime format conversion

I have a conversion problem with datetime. I have a date string as MM/dd/yyyy. Now I need to convert it to yyyy-MM-dd.
But I'm facing some error. Please help
public static DateTime ToDBDateTime(string _dateTime)
{
string sysFormat = "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt";
string _convertedDate = string.Empty;
if (_dateTime != null || _dateTime != string.Empty)
{
_convertedDate = DateTime.ParseExact(_dateTime, sysFormat, System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).ToString(_toDBDateFormat);
//_convertedDate = Convert.ToDateTime(_dateTime).ToString(_toDBDateFormat);
/// Debug.Print(sysFormat);
}
return Convert.ToDateTime(_convertedDate);
}
And I want to know that is there is any way to pass the datetime in various formats and it would return the expected format.
E.g.: if I pass date as dd/MM/yyyy or MM/dd/yyyy, the above function would return the date in format as yyyy-MM-dd.
Please provide some suggestion to solve datetime issues.

I have a date string as MM/dd/yyyy
Right... and yet you're trying to parse it like this:
string sysFormat = "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt";
...
_convertedDate = DateTime.ParseExact(_dateTime, sysFormat,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
You need to give a format string which matches your input - so why are you including a time part? You probably just want:
string sysFormat = "MM/dd/yyyy";
However, that's not the end of the problems. You're then converting that DateTime back into a string like this:
.ToString(_toDBDateFormat)
... and parsing it once more:
return Convert.ToDateTime(_convertedDate);
Why on earth would you want to do that? You should avoid string conversions as far as possible. Aside from anything else, what's to say that _toDBDateFormat (a variable name which raises my suspicions to start with) and Convert.ToDateTime (which always uses the current culture for parsing) are going to be compatible?
You should:
Work out how you want to handle being given an empty string or null, and just return an appropriate DateTime then
Otherwise, just parse using the right format.
This part of your question also concerns me:
E.g.: if I pass date as dd/MM/yyyy or MM/dd/yyyy, the above function would return the date in format as yyyy-MM-dd.
There's no such thing as "the date in format as yyyy-MM-dd". A DateTime is just a date and time value. It has no intrinsic format. You specify how you want to format it when you format it. However, if you're using the value for a database query, you shouldn't be converting it into a string again anyway - you should be using parameterized SQL, and just providing it as a DateTime.

As you have a date in a string with the format "MM/dd/yyyy" and want to convert it to "yyyy-MM-dd" you could do like this:
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
dt.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");

Use the inbuilt tostring like this:
Convert.ToDateTime(_convertedDate).ToString("MM/dd/yyyy") or whatever format you want.

I tried this and its working fine.
DateTime date1 = new DateTime(2009, 8, 1);
date1.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss tt");
You can apply any format in this ToString.
Hope that helps
Milind