I have a custom date format that I want to convert to Datetime so I can then insert into my database, I tried using Datetime.ParseExact() But I think I'm misunderstanding something as the code throws a System.FormatException.
I have the following date format from a csv
> 6/11/2014 9:00
and I wish to convert it to the mysql datetime format
> 0000-00-00 00:00:00 OR yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
Notice they haven't included the seconds in the original date so I am unsure (without appending them to the end) how to set all records to just have "00" for seconds as it is not available.
I tried the following which throws an exception
DateTime myDate = DateTime.ParseExact("6/11/2014 9:00", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm",
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
first thing you need to convert string to date time and than convert datetime tos tring
string strd = "6/11/2014 9:00";
DateTime dt ;
//convert datetime string to datetime
if(DateTime.TryParse(strd, out dt))
{
//convert datetime to custom datetime format
Console.WriteLine("The current date and time: {0: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss}",
dt); ;
}
output
I know this is late to answer that but I'm really surprised none of answer consider to use IFormatProvider to prevent a possible parsing error because of / format specifier or considering your string is a standard date and time format for your CurrentCulture or not so you can or can't use DateTime.TryParse(string, out DateTime) overload directly.
First of all, let's look at what DateTime.ParseExact documentation says:
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 don't match. You should use d/MM/yyyy H:mm format to parse your example string with a culture that have / as a DateSeparator. I almost always suggest to use DateTime.TryParseExact method in this kind of situations;
string s = "6/11/2014 9:00";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "d/MM/yyyy H:mm", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
Console.WriteLine(dt.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
// result will be 2014-11-06 09:00:00
}
If you know formats of your dates, then you can do this:
string stringDate = "6/11/2014 9:00";
//Your date formats of input
string[] dateFormats = new string[]
{
"d/MM/yyyy H:mm",
"dd/MM/yyyy H:mm",
"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm",
"dd/MM/yyyy H:mm:ss",
"dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss"
/* And other formats */
};
DateTime convertedDate;
bool isSuccessful = DateTime.TryParseExact(stringDate, dateFormats,
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, out convertedDate);
if (isSuccessful)
{
//If conversion was successful then you can print your date at any format you like
//because you have your date as DateTime object
Console.WriteLine(convertedDate.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss")); /* Or other format you want to print */
}
I hope it will be helpful to you.
Related
Tried the below but it only takes care of one format
string date = "20100102";
DateTime datetime = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "yyyyMMdd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Instead of
DateTime datetime = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "yyyyMMdd",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
...try:
var dateString = "20100102";
var formats = new String[]{"yyyyMMdd",
"ddMMyyyy"};
DateTime dateValue;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, formats,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None,
out dateValue))
Console.WriteLine ("Success");
MSDN has this to say on DateTime.TryParseExact:
Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified array of formats, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match at least one of the specified formats exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.
Tell me more
DateTime.TryParseExact
I have two Timestamps that are saved to and read from two XML files.
Currently I am reading the timestamps from the xml files in a WCF Service method, so they are coming in as Strings , but I need them to be converted into DateTime so they can be compared.
The obvious Convert.ToDateTime(TimeStampString) renders this error at Runtime -
String was not recognized as a valid DateTime
As does
DateTime.ParseExact(TimeStampString, "mm/dd/yyyy hh:MM:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Both Timestamps are in the correct format for DateTime (mm/dd/yyyy hh:MM:ss).
I've even tried splitting the timstamp strings into String[] and assembling my own DateTime object by hand, and I still received the error.
Is this a format issue? How can I make my String a valid DateTime?
It's a format issue
mm/dd/yy hh:MM:ss
should be
MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss
(basically, swap the upper case MM in the date & the lowercase mm in the time)
I resolved the issue by removing any attempts to alter the format from US, so Strings came in with US format - then used an IFormatProvider to alter the format at conversion time.
IFormatProvider localFormat = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("fr-FR", true);
DateTime ContentLastUpdatedTime = DateTime.Parse(ContentLastUpdatedStamp, localFormat , System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal);
DateTime ContentLastGrabbedTime = DateTime.Parse(LastGrabbedTimeStamp, localFormat , System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal);
You need to use
DateTime.ParseExact(TimeStampString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
instead of
DateTime.ParseExact(TimeStampString, "mm/dd/yyyy hh:MM:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
The issue is lower case mm which is used for minutes, You need MM upper case MM, plus your date is in 24 hours format, and you need upper case HH for hour part , so your format should be:
MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss
(considering you have yyyy in your original code based on your comment)
See: Custom Date and Time Format Strings
Here you go
var dtedatetime = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:sszzz");
DateTimeOffset dto;
bool bIsParsed = DateTimeOffset.TryParseExact(dtedatetime , "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'sszzz",
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, out dto);
var result = dto.DateTime;
I need to compare two date format strings:
dateString in "dd-MMM-yy" format
with
referenceDateString in "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt" format respectively.
For that, I need to convert the dateString = "dd-MMM-yy" to "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt".
However, Got an error while trying to do that:
"Error: string was not recognized as a valid datetime".
The C# code I used given below.
string dateString = "19-Dec-14";
string AsofDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Edit 1:
In the actual code the dateString obtaining after reading a csv file which is supplied as "19-Dec-14", that's why it's in the string format.
Please help, am pretty new to C#. Thanks.
Habib already gave the answer on his comments, I try to add it as an answer;
From DateTime.ParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider)
Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its
DateTime equivalent using the specified format and culture-specific
format information. The format of the string representation must match
the specified format exactly.
In your case, clearly they don't. First, you need to parse your string to DateTime with proper format (which is dd-MMM-yy with an english-based culture), then you can get the string represention of your DateTime with specific format.
string s = "19-Dec-14";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "dd-MMM-yy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
dt.ToString("M/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).Dump();
// Result will be 12/19/2014 12:00:00 AM
}
It's not entirely clear what you are trying to do, but in order to parse that date you have on the first line, you would use something like this:
DateTime AsofDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "dd-MMM-yy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Note a couple things here: I've changed the data type of AsofDate from string to DateTime because that's what DateTime.ParseExact returns. Also, I've modified the custom format string to match the format of the string you are trying to parse as a date ("19-Dec-14").
I am below code in c#, where I am converting my string type format date to datetime, but giving the error.
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate")))
{
DateTime ExpiryDate = DateTime.ParseExact(SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate"), "dd mmm yy", null);
strDate = sitedata.FormatDate(ExpiryDate, TridionDateFormat.ShortDate);
}
else
{
strDate = "-";
}
My SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate") is string type data which returns "31/01/2011 00:00:00" format date, in above code where I am using DateTime.ParseExact it is giving me System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime. error.
Please suggest what is wrong.
Thanks.
The sample date you describe (31/01/2011 00:00:00) looks like a format dd/MM/YYYY HH:mm:ss, so why are you using dd mmm yyyy?
Try
DateTime.ParseExact(..., "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Note the use of HH (24-hour clock) rather than hh (12-hour clock), and the use of InvariantCulture because some cultures use separators other than slash.
For example, if the culture is de-DE, the format "dd/MM/yyyy" would expect period as a separator (31.01.2011).
Probably because of mmm(there isn't such month format), try MMM instead.(looks like Feb/Jan/etc)
You are using the wrong format to parse the date. The correct one is:
DateTime ExpiryDate = DateTime.ParseExact(SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate"), "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss", null)
Also, if your system date format is set to dd/MM/yyyy you can simply use:
DateTime ExpiryDate = DateTime.ParseExact(SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate"), "G", null)
Try
DateTime ExpiryDate = DateTime.ParseExact(SessionDictionary.GetValue("UserDetails", "ExpiryDate"), "g", null);
or see here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx
I have the following date in string format "2011-29-01 12:00 am" . Now I am trying to convert that to datetime format with the following code:
DateTime.TryParse(dateTime, out dt);
But I am alwayws getting dt as {1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM} , Can you please tell me why ? and how can I convert that string to date.
EDIT: I just saw everybody mentioned to use format argument. I will mention now that I can't use the format parameter as I have some setting to select the custom dateformat what user wants, and based on that user is able to get the date in textbox in that format automatically via jQuery datepicker.
This should work based on your example "2011-29-01 12:00 am"
DateTime dt;
DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTime,
"yyyy-dd-MM hh:mm tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None,
out dt);
You need to use the ParseExact method. This takes a string as its second argument that specifies the format the datetime is in, for example:
// Parse date and time with custom specifier.
dateString = "2011-29-01 12:00 am";
format = "yyyy-dd-MM h:mm tt";
try
{
result = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, format, provider);
Console.WriteLine("{0} converts to {1}.", dateString, result.ToString());
}
catch (FormatException)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} is not in the correct format.", dateString);
}
If the user can specify a format in the UI, then you need to translate that to a string you can pass into this method. You can do that by either allowing the user to enter the format string directly - though this means that the conversion is more likely to fail as they will enter an invalid format string - or having a combo box that presents them with the possible choices and you set up the format strings for these choices.
If it's likely that the input will be incorrect (user input for example) it would be better to use TryParseExact rather than use exceptions to handle the error case:
// Parse date and time with custom specifier.
dateString = "2011-29-01 12:00 am";
format = "yyyy-dd-MM h:mm tt";
DateTime result;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, format, provider, DateTimeStyles.None, out result))
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} converts to {1}.", dateString, result.ToString());
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} is not in the correct format.", dateString);
}
A better alternative might be to not present the user with a choice of date formats, but use the overload that takes an array of formats:
// A list of possible American date formats - swap M and d for European formats
string[] formats= {"M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", "M/d/yyyy h:mm tt",
"MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss",
"M/d/yyyy hh:mm tt", "M/d/yyyy hh tt",
"M/d/yyyy h:mm", "M/d/yyyy h:mm",
"MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm", "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm",
"MM/d/yyyy HH:mm:ss.ffffff" };
string dateString; // The string the date gets read into
try
{
dateValue = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, formats,
new CultureInfo("en-US"),
DateTimeStyles.None);
Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}.", dateString, dateValue);
}
catch (FormatException)
{
Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}' to a date.", dateString);
}
If you read the possible formats out of a configuration file or database then you can add to these as you encounter all the different ways people want to enter dates.
The main drawback with this approach is that you will still have ambiguous dates. The formats are tried in order so no matter what it'll try the European format before the American (or vice versa) and cover anything where the day is less than 13 to a European formatted date even if the user thought they were entering an American formatted date.
Try using safe TryParseExact method
DateTime temp;
string date = "2011-29-01 12:00 am";
DateTime.TryParseExact(date, "yyyy-dd-MM hh:mm tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out temp);
From DateTime on msdn:
Type: System.DateTime% When this method returns, contains the DateTime
value equivalent to the date and time contained in s, if the
conversion succeeded, or MinValue if the conversion failed. The
conversion fails if the s parameter is null, is an empty string (""),
or does not contain a valid string representation of a date and time.
This parameter is passed uninitialized.
Use parseexact with the format string "yyyy-dd-MM hh:mm tt" instead.
That works:
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("2011-29-01 12:00 am", "yyyy-dd-MM hh:mm tt", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("11-22-2012 12:00 am", "MM-dd-yyyy hh:mm tt", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If you give the user the opportunity to change the date/time format, then you'll have to create a corresponding format string to use for parsing. If you know the possible date formats (i.e. the user has to select from a list), then this is much easier because you can create those format strings at compile time.
If you let the user do free-format design of the date/time format, then you'll have to create the corresponding DateTime format strings at runtime.