I'm trying to convert some DateTime values to string format yyyy-MM-dd. The problem is i only need the date but in my case model.StartDate contains both date and time. When declaring model.StartDate as string "start" looks like this: 4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM. I get this error when trying to parse:
System.FormatException was unhandled by user code Message=String was
not recognized as a valid DateTime.
My best guess is that the error occurs because string contains both Date and Time but i could be wrong. If i explore model.StartDate further i can also find Day, DayOfTheWeek etc. Is this the right approach? I just want to convert model.StartDate to string "start" with format yyyy-MM-dd.
Heres my code:
string start = model.StartDate.ToString();
model.StartDate = DateTime.ParseExact(start, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
string end = model.EndDate.ToString();
model.EndDate = DateTime.ParseExact(end, "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Dunno what the problem is, might be that start contains time? I have no idea.
The model.StartDate and model.EndDate are DateTime properties from the view model:
[NopResourceDisplayName("Admin.GAStatistics.GAStatistics.StartDate")]
[UIHint("DateNullable")]
public DateTime? StartDate { get; set; }
[NopResourceDisplayName("Admin.GAStatistics.GAStatistics.EndDate")]
[UIHint("DateNullable")]
public DateTime? EndDate { get; set; }
EDIT:
Iv'e uploaded a image here showing the actual output i'm getting in the debugger:
https://imageshack.com/i/1n51u2p
Thank you
You are converting the dates to string but you don't specify the format. Try
string start = model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd);
ToString() uses the current thread's Culture format to convert the date to a string, including the time. The format used is G, the general date and time format.
Just for this format, you don't need to specify CultureInfo.InvariantCulture because there isn't anything culture specific. A common gotcha with the yyyy/MM/dd format though is that some cultures use - as the date specifier, and / is the date placeholder. In such a case you would have to use:
string start = model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd,CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
UPDATE
From the comments, it seems that model.StartDate and model.EndDate are not DateTime objects but strings with a specific format that include a time element.
What you are actually trying to do is parse the original string to a DateTime object, then format this object to the new format string:
var date=DateTime.ParseExact(model.StartDate,"M/d/YYYY HH:mm:ss tt",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
model.StartDate=date.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd",CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
assuming the string the value "4/1/2014 12:00:00 AM" for April 1, 2014
You appear to be misunderstanding how ParseExact works (or actually what it does). Parsing, in general, is the process of taking data of type X and converting it to type Y - in the context of DateTime this means converting a date string to a DateTime instance. This is completely different to what you are trying to do which is formatting a DateTime instance.
Given you already have the date you don't need to parse anything, all you need to do is format the date
model.StartDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture is important when working with fixed formats because you want to make sure you aren't culture aware i.e. the format you specify is exactly how you want it to display in all cultures.
Use the .Date property of a DateTime to get only the Date part. Your ToString() will also yield different results based on the current culture meaning that while your ToString() and then TryParse might work for you right now, it will break in other countries.
You can use ToString() overload to specify a specific format. Different formats can be found here
Related
I am using the code below to check the datetime and it is working fine in my machine but once after deployment, I am getting
"String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."
Please provide me the solution to work in all machine.
DateTime date1 = DateTime.Parse("16/05"); MM/dd
string todaydate = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd");
if (Convert.ToDateTime(todaydate) > Convert.ToDateTime(date1.ToString("MM/dd")))
{ //Logic }
Honestly, since both answer didn't satisfied me, here is my two cent..
Let's look at your code line by line;
DateTime date1 = DateTime.Parse("16/05");
DateTime.Parse uses your CurrentCulture settings by default if don't provide any IFormatProvider as a second parameter on it's overloads. That means, if your one of standard date and time patterns of your CurrentCulture includes dd/MM (or your current culture DateSeparator since / format separator has a special meaning of replace me with current culture date separator) format, this parsing operation will be successful. That means this line might throws FormatException that depends on the current culture settings.
string todaydate = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd");
DateTime.Now returns a local current time. With it's ToString() method you try to get it's string representation with MM/dd format. BUT WAIT! You used / format specifier again and still, you didn't use any IFormatProvider. Since this format specifier replace itself with current culture date separator, your todaydate might be 05/16, 05-16 or 05.16. That's totally depends on what date separator your current culture use.
Convert.ToDateTime(todaydate)
Convert.ToDateTime method uses DateTime.Parse explicitly. That means,since you didn't provide any IFormatProvider it will be use your CurrentCulture again and it's standard date and time formats. As I said, todaydate might be 05/16, 05-16 or 05.16 as a result. But there is no guarantee that your current culture parse this string successfully because it may not have MM/dd in it's standard date and time formats. If it parse "16/05" successfully, that means it has dd/MM format, in such a case, it definitely can't have MM/dd as a standard date and time format. A culture can't parse dd/MM and MM/dd formats at the same time. In such a case, it can't know that 01/02 string should parse as 2nd January or 1st February, right?
Convert.ToDateTime(date1.ToString("MM/dd"))
Same as here. As todaydate string, this will create "05/16" (it depends on current culture date separator of course) result and still there is no guarantee to parse this successfully.
And as said in comments, there is no point to parse your string to DateTime and get it's same string representation as well.
I strongly suspect you try to compare your current date is bigger than your parsed DateTime or not, you can use DateTime.Today property to compare with it. This property gets DateTime as current date part plus midnight as time part. For example;
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact("16/05", "dd/MM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
if(DateTime.Today > dt)
{
// Your operation
}
}
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("16/05", "dd/MM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
if (DateTime.Today > dt)
{
// your application logic
}
DateTime dt = // From whatever source
if (DateTime.Now.Ticks > dt.Ticks)
{
// Do logic
}
i have date stored in a string format as follows: "2014-03-12"
im passing this to a database which accepts the date as datetime.
im converting the string date to datetime format as follows:
DateTime StartDates = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate);
but the time gets appended along with the date as "2014-03-12 12:00:00:00"
can anyone tel me how to send only the date leaving out the time.
i want the final date to be still in datetime format only but with time part cut off
DateTime is irrespective of the format. Formatting is only useful for presentation purpose. A DateTime object will have a Date part and Time part. When you try parsing your string "2014-03-12", it doesn't have a Time part, so in the parsed object, Time is set to 00:00:00.
If you just want to to display date then you can use DateTime.ToShortDateString method or use a custom format like:
string formattedDateString = StartDates.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If you're happy with the date part, you may simply return the Date property of the DateTime conversion result:
DateTime StartDates = Convert.ToDateTime(StartDate).Date;
I should mention that using Convert.ToDateTime puts you at the mercy of the process current culture date format though, so you probably want to use the ParseExact or ToString method like the other answers suggests, with the appropriate format and culture instance.
I have an issue similar to this > Format exception String was not recognized as a valid DateTime
However, my spec requires a date format of ddMMyyyy, therefore I have modified my code but I am still getting the same error
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(now.ToString(), #"ddMMyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
I am unclear why.
You code fails because you are attempting to parse a date in the format ddMMyyyy, when by default DateTime.ToString() will produce a format with both date and time in the current culture.
For myself in Australia that would be dd/MM/yyy hh:mm:ss p e.g. 11/10/2013 11:07:03 AM
You must realise is that the DateTime object actually stores a date as individual components (e.g. day, month, year) that only needs to be format when you output the value into whatever format you desire.
E.g.
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
string formattedDate = now.ToString("ddMMyyyy", DateTimeFormatInfo.InvariantInfo);
For more information see the api doc:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8tfzyc64.aspx
For ParseExact to work, the string coming in must match exactly the pattern matching. In the other question you mentioned, the text was coming from a web form where the format was specified to be exactly one format.
In your case you generated the date using DateTime.Now.ToString() which will not be in the format ddMMyyyy. If you want to make the date round trip, you need to specify the format both places:
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(now.ToString("ddMMyyyy"), #"ddMMyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Debug your code and look at what the result of now.ToString() is, it's is not in the format of "ddMMyyyy", which is why the parse is failing. If you want to output now as a string in the ddMMyyy format, then try now.ToSTring("ddMMyyyy") instead.
now.ToString() does not return a string formatted in that way. Try using now.ToString("ddMMyyyy").
You might be better off testing with a static string like "30041999"
I have date string in format dd-MMM-yyyy and want to convert this to datetime, when I use below code
DateTime.ParseExact("20-Oct-2012", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm tt", null)
it causing an error
String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.
When I modify above code
DateTime.ParseExact("20-Oct-2012", "dd-MMM-yyyy", null)
then I got date time in format (mm/dd/yyyy) : 10/20/2012 12:00:00 AM
But I need it should be converted in yyyy/mm/dd format. Please help me in this regard.
You should try this
DateTime.ParseExact("20-Oct-2012", "dd-MMM-yyyy", null).ToString("yyyy/mm/dd")
For further reading on formats Check This
You need to distinguish between two separate concerns: that of parsing your original string into an abstract DateTime representation, and that of converting the latter back into another string representation.
In your code, you're only tackling the former, and relying on the implicit ToString() method call (which uses the system's current locale) to convert it back to string. If you want to control the output format, you need to specify it explicitly:
// Convert from string in "dd-MMM-yyyy" format to DateTime.
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("20-Oct-2012", "dd-MMM-yyyy", null);
// Convert from DateTime to string in "yyyy/MM/dd" format.
string str = dt.ToString("yyyy/MM/dd");
Also note that the mm format specifier represents minutes; months are represented by MM.
Edit: 'Converted date contain value "10/20/2012 12:00:00 AM".' Be careful what you mean by that. The constructed DateTime value contains an abstract representation of the parsed date and time that is independent of any format.
However, in order to display it, you need to convert it back into some string representation. When you view the variable in the debugger (as you're presumably doing), Visual Studio automatically calls the parameterless ToString() method on the DateTime, which renders the date and time under the current culture (which, in your case, assumes the US culture).
To alter this behaviour such that it renders the date and time under a custom format, you need to explicitly call the ToString(string) overload (or one of the other overloads), as I've shown in the example above.
You could try this instead :
Convert.ToDateTime("20-Oct-2012").ToString("yyyy/MM/dd")
Hope this will help !!
What Convert.DateTime will convert the date 7/25/2010 12:00:00 it's current format is(MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss)?
When I convert this string format to date time I am getting the error "string was not recognized as valid DateTime"
None. Dates are not stored internally as a certain format.
If you want to parse a string into a date, use DateTime.ParseExact or DateTime.TryParseExact (the former will throw an exception if the conversion fails, the second uses an out parameter):
DateTime myDate = DateTime.ParseExact("7/25/2010 12:00:00",
"MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If you want to display a certain format, use ToString with the format string.
So, if you have a date object that represents midday of the 25th of July 2010 (doesn't matter how it is represented internally) and you want to format it with the format string "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss" you do the following:
string formattedDate = myDate.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
If you need to use Convert.DateTime, I'll assume you're working with a string you want to convert to a date. So you might try this:
DateTime date = Convert.DateTime("7/25/2010 12:00:00 am");
string formattedDateString = date.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss")
I'm making no assumptions as to why you'd want to do this, except that, well, you have your reasons.
DateTime.TryParse() or DateTime.Parse() will do the trick.
Edit: This is assuming that you are going from a string to a DateTime object.
Edit2: I just tested this with your input string, and I receive no error with DateTime.Parse