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How to convert a string to DateTime in a TextBox of a gridview [duplicate]

How do you convert a string such as 2009-05-08 14:40:52,531 into a DateTime?

Since you are handling 24-hour based time and you have a comma separating the seconds fraction, I recommend that you specify a custom format:
DateTime myDate = DateTime.ParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,fff",
System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

You have basically two options for this. DateTime.Parse() and DateTime.ParseExact().
The first is very forgiving in terms of syntax and will parse dates in many different formats. It is good for user input which may come in different formats.
ParseExact will allow you to specify the exact format of your date string to use for parsing. It is good to use this if your string is always in the same format. This way, you can easily detect any deviations from the expected data.
You can parse user input like this:
DateTime enteredDate = DateTime.Parse(enteredString);
If you have a specific format for the string, you should use the other method:
DateTime loadedDate = DateTime.ParseExact(loadedString, "d", null);
"d" stands for the short date pattern (see MSDN for more info) and null specifies that the current culture should be used for parsing the string.

try this
DateTime myDate = DateTime.Parse(dateString);
a better way would be this:
DateTime myDate;
if (!DateTime.TryParse(dateString, out myDate))
{
// handle parse failure
}

Use DateTime.Parse(string):
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Parse(dateTimeStr);

Nobody seems to implemented an extension method. With the help of #CMS's answer:
Working and improved full source example is here: Gist Link
namespace ExtensionMethods {
using System;
using System.Globalization;
public static class DateTimeExtensions {
public static DateTime ToDateTime(this string s,
string format = "ddMMyyyy", string cultureString = "tr-TR") {
try {
var r = DateTime.ParseExact(
s: s,
format: format,
provider: CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo(cultureString));
return r;
} catch (FormatException) {
throw;
} catch (CultureNotFoundException) {
throw; // Given Culture is not supported culture
}
}
public static DateTime ToDateTime(this string s,
string format, CultureInfo culture) {
try {
var r = DateTime.ParseExact(s: s, format: format,
provider: culture);
return r;
} catch (FormatException) {
throw;
} catch (CultureNotFoundException) {
throw; // Given Culture is not supported culture
}
}
}
}
namespace SO {
using ExtensionMethods;
using System;
using System.Globalization;
class Program {
static void Main(string[] args) {
var mydate = "29021996";
var date = mydate.ToDateTime(format: "ddMMyyyy"); // {29.02.1996 00:00:00}
mydate = "2016 3";
date = mydate.ToDateTime("yyyy M"); // {01.03.2016 00:00:00}
mydate = "2016 12";
date = mydate.ToDateTime("yyyy d"); // {12.01.2016 00:00:00}
mydate = "2016/31/05 13:33";
date = mydate.ToDateTime("yyyy/d/M HH:mm"); // {31.05.2016 13:33:00}
mydate = "2016/31 Ocak";
date = mydate.ToDateTime("yyyy/d MMMM"); // {31.01.2016 00:00:00}
mydate = "2016/31 January";
date = mydate.ToDateTime("yyyy/d MMMM", cultureString: "en-US");
// {31.01.2016 00:00:00}
mydate = "11/شعبان/1437";
date = mydate.ToDateTime(
culture: CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("ar-SA"),
format: "dd/MMMM/yyyy");
// Weird :) I supposed dd/yyyy/MMMM but that did not work !?$^&*
System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert(
date.Equals(new DateTime(year: 2016, month: 5, day: 18)));
}
}
}

I tried various ways. What worked for me was this:
Convert.ToDateTime(data, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
data for me was times like this 9/24/2017 9:31:34 AM

Try the below, where strDate is your date in 'MM/dd/yyyy' format
var date = DateTime.Parse(strDate,new CultureInfo("en-US", true))

Convert.ToDateTime or DateTime.Parse

DateTime.Parse
Syntax:
DateTime.Parse(String value)
DateTime.Parse(String value, IFormatProvider provider)
DateTime.Parse(String value, IFormatProvider provider, DateTypeStyles styles)
Example:
string value = "1 January 2019";
CultureInfo provider = new CultureInfo("en-GB");
DateTime.Parse(value, provider, DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault););
Value: string representation of date and time.
Provider: object which provides culture specific info.
Styles: formatting options that customize string parsing for some date and time parsing methods. For instance, AllowWhiteSpaces is a value which helps to ignore all spaces present in string while it parse.
It's also worth remembering DateTime is an object that is stored as number internally in the framework, Format only applies to it when you convert it back to string.
Parsing converting a string to the internal number type.
Formatting converting the internal numeric value to a readable
string.
I recently had an issue where I was trying to convert a DateTime to pass to Linq what I hadn't realised at the time was format is irrelevant when passing DateTime to a Linq Query.
DateTime SearchDate = DateTime.Parse(searchDate);
applicationsUsages = applicationsUsages.Where(x => DbFunctions.TruncateTime(x.dateApplicationSelected) == SearchDate.Date);
Full DateTime Documentation

string input;
DateTime db;
Console.WriteLine("Enter Date in this Format(YYYY-MM-DD): ");
input = Console.ReadLine();
db = Convert.ToDateTime(input);
//////// this methods convert string value to datetime
///////// in order to print date
Console.WriteLine("{0}-{1}-{2}",db.Year,db.Month,db.Day);

You could also use DateTime.TryParseExact() as below if you are unsure of the input value.
DateTime outputDateTimeValue;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,fff", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, out outputDateTimeValue))
{
return outputDateTimeValue;
}
else
{
// Handle the fact that parse did not succeed
}

I just found an elegant way:
Convert.ChangeType("2020-12-31", typeof(DateTime));
Convert.ChangeType("2020/12/31", typeof(DateTime));
Convert.ChangeType("2020-01-01 16:00:30", typeof(DateTime));
Convert.ChangeType("2020/12/31 16:00:30", typeof(DateTime), System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-GB"));
Convert.ChangeType("11/شعبان/1437", typeof(DateTime), System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("ar-SA"));
Convert.ChangeType("2020-02-11T16:54:51.466+03:00", typeof(DateTime)); // format: "yyyy'-'MM'-'dd'T'HH':'mm':'ss'.'fffzzz"

Put this code in a static class> public static class ClassName{ }
public static DateTime ToDateTime(this string datetime, char dateSpliter = '-', char timeSpliter = ':', char millisecondSpliter = ',')
{
try
{
datetime = datetime.Trim();
datetime = datetime.Replace(" ", " ");
string[] body = datetime.Split(' ');
string[] date = body[0].Split(dateSpliter);
int year = date[0].ToInt();
int month = date[1].ToInt();
int day = date[2].ToInt();
int hour = 0, minute = 0, second = 0, millisecond = 0;
if (body.Length == 2)
{
string[] tpart = body[1].Split(millisecondSpliter);
string[] time = tpart[0].Split(timeSpliter);
hour = time[0].ToInt();
minute = time[1].ToInt();
if (time.Length == 3) second = time[2].ToInt();
if (tpart.Length == 2) millisecond = tpart[1].ToInt();
}
return new DateTime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second, millisecond);
}
catch
{
return new DateTime();
}
}
In this way, you can use
string datetime = "2009-05-08 14:40:52,531";
DateTime dt0 = datetime.TToDateTime();
DateTime dt1 = "2009-05-08 14:40:52,531".ToDateTime();
DateTime dt5 = "2009-05-08".ToDateTime();
DateTime dt2 = "2009/05/08 14:40:52".ToDateTime('/');
DateTime dt3 = "2009/05/08 14.40".ToDateTime('/', '.');
DateTime dt4 = "2009-05-08 14:40-531".ToDateTime('-', ':', '-');

String now = DateTime.Now.ToString("YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI:SS");//make it datetime
DateTime.Parse(now);
this one gives you
2019-08-17 11:14:49.000

Different cultures in the world write date strings in different ways. For example, in the US 01/20/2008 is January 20th, 2008. In France this will throw an InvalidFormatException. This is because France reads date-times as Day/Month/Year, and in the US it is Month/Day/Year.
Consequently, a string like 20/01/2008 will parse to January 20th, 2008 in France, and then throw an InvalidFormatException in the US.
To determine your current culture settings, you can use System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.
string dateTime = "01/08/2008 14:50:50.42";
DateTime dt = Convert.ToDateTime(dateTime);
Console.WriteLine("Year: {0}, Month: {1}, Day: {2}, Hour: {3}, Minute: {4}, Second: {5}, Millisecond: {6}",
dt.Year, dt.Month, dt.Day, dt.Hour, dt.Minute, dt.Second, dt.Millisecond);

This worked for me:
CultureInfo provider = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531","yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,fff", provider);

Do you want it fast?
Let's say you have a date with format yyMMdd.
The fastest way to convert it that I found is:
var d = new DateTime(
(s[0] - '0') * 10 + s[1] - '0' + 2000,
(s[2] - '0') * 10 + s[3] - '0',
(s[4] - '0') * 10 + s[5] - '0')
Just, choose the indexes according to your date format of choice. If you need speed probably you don't mind the 'non-generic' way of the function.
This method takes about 10% of the time required by:
var d = DateTime.ParseExact(s, "yyMMdd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Convert Date as given in formation string

I have a function that converts a given date to timestamp. the date format is dynamic. for example (it could be 'dd/MM/yyyy' or 'dd-MM-yyyy' or MM/dd/yyyy).but date format is also passed as an argument in the function. i need to seperate day , month and year for this conversion. how can i separate as given in formation string
public static double GetTimeStamp(string date, string format)
{
string[] dateToConvert = date.Split('/');
int year=Int32.Parse(dateToConvert[2]);
int month=Int32.Parse(dateToConvert[1]);
int day=Int32.Parse(dateToConvert[0]);
var baseDate = new DateTime(1970, 01, 01);
var toDate = new DateTime(year, month, day);
var numberOfSeconds = toDate.Subtract(baseDate).TotalSeconds;
return numberOfSeconds;
}
i am using '/' as a separation character. but i want to separate it as provided in the formation. if formation string is (dd-MM-yyyy). i need to seperate it using '-' charecter

DateTime dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(date, format, null);
int year = dateTime.Year;
int month=dateTime.Month;
int day = dateTime.Day;
var toDate = new DateTime(year, month, day);

Checking if a string contains a regex in the form of a date in c#

I have a string variable defined as :
string str = Request[columns[2][search]];
Sometimes the str returns me a value of AR and sometimes 15/02/2018 to 23/04/2018
Therefore I am checking if the str contains 15/02/2018 to 23/04/2018, then it should return me true.
To perform this check I have used the below code, which does not seem to work. It always returns me false. Can someone please help me with this or by using a regex as an alternative ?
DateTime date;
Boolean isValidDate = DateTime.TryParseExact(str, "dd/MM/yyyy to dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date);

I would do this in two passes:
Use a regular expression to extract the dates if they're present at all.
Use DateTime.TryParseExact to check that each date really is a date.
I would recommend against trying to do full date validation in the regular expression itself - that's more in the DateTime domain. The regular expression domain is more "finding the bit of text that might be a date".
Here's a complete example of this approach:
using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Test("AR");
Test("99/99/9999 to 99/99/9999");
Test("15/02/2018 to 23/04/2018");
}
static void Test(string text)
{
var result = TryParseDates(text, out var from, out var to);
Console.WriteLine(result
? $"{text}: match! From={from:yyyy-MM-dd}; To={to:yyyy-MM-dd}"
: $"{text}: no match");
}
static readonly Regex dateToDatePattern = new Regex(#"^(\d{2}/\d{2}/\d{4}) to (\d{2}/\d{2}/\d{4})$");
static bool TryParseDates(string text, out DateTime from, out DateTime to)
{
var match = dateToDatePattern.Match(text);
if (match.Success)
{
// Don't assign values to the out parameters until we know they're
// both valid.
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(match.Groups[1].Value, "dd/MM/yyyy",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out var tempFrom)
&&
DateTime.TryParseExact(match.Groups[2].Value, "dd/MM/yyyy",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out var tempTo))
{
from = tempFrom;
to = tempTo;
return true;
}
}
// Either the regex or the parsing failed. Either way, set
// the out parameters and return false.
from = default(DateTime);
to = default(DateTime);
return false;
}
}
Output:
AR: no match
99/99/9999 to 99/99/9999: no match
15/02/2018 to 23/04/2018: match! From=2018-02-15; To=2018-04-23

You need to create a method to parse and validate the dates:
public bool TryParseDates(string dateString, out DateTime date1, out DateTime date2)
{
var parts = dateString.Split(new [] { " to " }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
if (parts.Length != 2)
{
date1 = default(DateTime);
date2 = default(DateTime);
return false;
}
var date1Result = DateTime.TryParseExact(parts[0], "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date1);
var date2Result = DateTime.TryParseExact(parts[1], "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date2);
return date1Result && date2Result;
}
This splits the strings by " to ", checks that you have two items, and then parses eat date individually, and returns true if it was successful.
Usage:
DateTime d1, d2;
bool isValid = TryParseDates(str, out d1, out d2);
Sample: http://rextester.com/WCEYI66887

How to get the day value out of a textbox in C#?

For example, if the textbox contains 11/11/2016 OR 01/05/2016
How to get the day value only? example. 11 OR 01

One way is to parse the string in the TextBox to DateTime using an exact format. Then using the DateTime object, you can extract the Day Property:
DateTime date;
bool success = DateTime.TryParseExact(textBoxDate.Text, "dd/MM/yyyy",
CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal, out date);
int day;
if(success)
{
day = date.Day; // 1
// or string stringDay = date.ToString("dd"); to get 01
}
else
{
// handle error
}
Another way that I don't prefer (Not 100% safe input validation) is to use String.Split like this:
string strDay = textBoxDate.Text.Split('/').FirstOrDefault();
int day;
if(Int32.TryParse(strDay, out day))
{
// success
}
else
{
// Handle Error
}

string myString = textbox1.text;
DateTime day = DateTime.ParseExact(myString, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
int day = birthday.Day;

How to get the start and end times of a day

In my C# app, I pass a string variable that is of format yyyymmdd-yyyymmdd that represents a from and to date. I want to get the start and end times for these dates respectively. Currently I have the below code but was wondering if there was more of an elegant solution?
So for pdr = 20090521-20090523 would get "20090521 00:00:00" and "20090523 23:59:59"
private void ValidateDatePeriod(string pdr, out DateTime startDate,
out DateTime endDate)
{
string[] dates = pdr.Split('-');
if (dates.Length != 2)
{
throw new Exception("Date period is of incorrect format");
}
if (dates[0].Length != 8 || dates[1].Length != 8)
{
throw new Exception("Split date periods are of incorrect format");
}
startDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[0] + " 00:00:00",
"yyyyMMdd HH:mm:ss", null);
endDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[1] + "23:59:59",
"yyyyMMdd HH::mm:ss", null);
}

I am surprised to see how an incorrect answer received so many upvotes:
The correct version would be as follows:
public static DateTime StartOfDay(this DateTime theDate)
{
return theDate.Date;
}
public static DateTime EndOfDay(this DateTime theDate)
{
return theDate.Date.AddDays(1).AddTicks(-1);
}

You could define two extension methods somewhere, in a utility class like so :
public static DateTime EndOfDay(this DateTime date)
{
return new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, date.Day, 23, 59, 59, 999);
}
public static DateTime StartOfDay(this DateTime date)
{
return new DateTime(date.Year, date.Month, date.Day, 0, 0, 0, 0);
}
And then use them in code like so :
public DoSomething()
{
DateTime endOfThisDay = DateTime.Now.EndOfDay();
}

If you are only worried about .Net precision...
startDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[0], "yyyyMMdd");
endDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[1], "yyyyMMdd").AddTicks(-1).AddDays(1);
You really don't need to concatenate extra values onto the string for the time portion.
As an addendum, if you are using this for a query against, for example, a database...
startDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[0], "yyyyMMdd");
endDate = DateTime.ParseExact(dates[1], "yyyyMMdd").AddDays(1);
With a query of...
WHERE "startDate" >= #startDate AND "endDate" < #endDate
Then the precision issues noted in the comments won't really matter. The endDate in this case would not be part of the range, but the outside boundary.

The DateTime object has a property called Date which will return just the date portion. (The time portion is defaulted to 12:00 am).
I would recommend as a more elegant solution (IMHO) that if you want to allow any datetime on the last day, then you add 1 day to the date, and compare to allow times greater than or equal to the start date, but strictly less than the end date (plus 1 day).
// Calling code. beginDateTime and endDateTime are already set.
// beginDateTime and endDateTime are inclusive.
// targetDateTime is the date you want to check.
beginDateTime = beginDateTime.Date;
endDateTime = endDateTime.Date.AddDays(1);
if ( beginDateTime <= targetDateTime &&
targetDateTime < endDateTime )
// Do something.

public static class DateTimeExtension {
public static DateTime StartOfTheDay(this DateTime d) => new DateTime(d.Year, d.Month, d.Day, 0, 0,0);
public static DateTime EndOfTheDay(this DateTime d) => new DateTime(d.Year, d.Month, d.Day, 23, 59,59);
}

I use the following in C#
public static DateTime GetStartOfDay(DateTime dateTime)
{
return new DateTime(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, dateTime.Day, 0, 0, 0, 0);
}
public static DateTime GetEndOfDay(DateTime dateTime)
{
return new DateTime(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, dateTime.Day, 23, 59, 59, 999);
}
Then in MS SQL I do the following:
if datepart(ms, #dateEnd) = 0
set #dateEnd = dateadd(ms, -3, #dateEnd)
This will result in MS SQL time of 23:59:59.997 which is the max time before becoming the next day.
You could simply use:
new DateTime(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, dateTime.Day, 23, 59, 59, 999);
Which will work in MS SQL, but this is not as accurate in .Net side.

That's pretty much what I would do, with some small tweaks (really no big deal, just nitpicking):
The TryParse()/TryParseExact() methods should be used which return false instead of throwing exceptions.
FormatException is more specific than Exception
No need to check for Length == 8, because ParseExact()/TryParseExact() will do this
"00:00:00" and "23:59:59" are not needed
return true/false is you were able to parse, instead of throwing an exception (remember to check value returned from this method!)
Code:
private bool ValidateDatePeriod(string pdr, out DateTime startDate,
out DateTime endDate)
{
string[] dates = pdr.Split('-');
if (dates.Length != 2)
{
return false;
}
// no need to check for Length == 8 because the following will do it anyway
// no need for "00:00:00" or "23:59:59" either, I prefer AddDays(1)
if(!DateTime.TryParseExact(dates[0], "yyyyMMdd", null, DateTimeStyles.None, out startDate))
return false;
if(!DateTime.TryParseExact(dates[1], "yyyyMMdd", null, DateTimeStyles.None, out endDate))
return false;
endDate = endDate.AddDays(1);
return true;
}

I think we're doing it wrong. There is no such thing as the end of the day. AddTick(-1) only works under the convention that there are no time intervals smaller than a tick. Which is implementation dependent. Admittedly the question comes with a reference implementation, namely the .Net Framework DateTime class, but still we should take this as a clue that the function we really want is not EndOfDay() but StartOfNextDay()
public static DateTime StartOfNextDay(this DateTime date)
{
return date.Date.AddDays(1);
}

The issue above regarding the few milliseconds can be resolved by querying the database with the next day's start date.
For example:
SELECT * FROM temp WHERE createdDate >= fromDate AND createdDate < toDate
Using the extension methods below you could set the from and to dates to:
DateTimeOffset fromDate = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.StartOfDay();
DateTimeOffset toDate = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.EndOfDay();
public static class DateExtentions
{
public static DateTimeOffset StartOfDay(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return new DateTimeOffset(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, dateTime.Day, 0, 0, 0, 0, dateTime.Offset);
}
public static DateTimeOffset EndOfDay(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return dateTime.StartOfDay().AddDays(1);
}
public static DateTimeOffset StartOfMonth(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return new DateTimeOffset(dateTime.Year, dateTime.Month, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, dateTime.Offset);
}
public static DateTimeOffset EndOfMonth(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return dateTime.StartOfMonth().AddMonths(1);
}
public static DateTimeOffset StartOfYear(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return new DateTimeOffset(dateTime.Year, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, dateTime.Offset);
}
public static DateTimeOffset EndOfYear(this DateTimeOffset dateTime)
{
return dateTime.StartOfYear().AddYears(1);
}
}

For SQL Server (version 2008 R2 tested) this ranges works.
StarDate '2016-01-11 00:00:01.990'
EndDate '2016-01-19 23:59:59.990'
Seems like ticks is greater that the last second of day and automatically round to next day. So i test and works, i made a dummy table with two dates for check what values is sql server catching and inserting in the stored procedure those parameters.

In Java 8, you can do it using LocalDate as follows:
LocalDate localDateStart = LocalDate.now();
Date startDate = Date.from(localDateStart.atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());
LocalDate localDateEnd = localDateStart.plusDays(1);
Date endDate = Date.from(localDateEnd.atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());