Convert String to Datetime in C#

Parse string to DateTime in C#

DateTime.Parse() will try figure out the format of the given date, and it usually does a good job. If you can guarantee dates will always be in a given format then you can use ParseExact():

string s = "2011-03-21 13:26";

DateTime dt = 
    DateTime.ParseExact(s, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

(But note that it is usually safer to use one of the TryParse methods in case a date is not in the expected format)

Make sure to check Custom Date and Time Format Strings when constructing format string, especially pay attention to number of letters and case (i.e. "MM" and "mm" mean very different things).

Another useful resource for C# format strings is String Formatting in C#

How can I convert this 2012-08-16T19:20:30.456+08:00 string to DateTime using C#

The string in your example has an offset component so you can use DateTimeOffset:

var dateTimeOffset = DateTimeOffset.Parse("2012-08-16T19:20:30.456+08:00", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

From the linked docs:

The DateTimeOffset structure includes a DateTime value, together with
an Offset property that defines the difference between the current
DateTimeOffset instance's date and time and Coordinated Universal Time
(UTC).

Converting dd/mm/yyyy formatted string to Datetime

You need to use DateTime.ParseExact with format "dd/MM/yyyy"

DateTime dt=DateTime.ParseExact("24/01/2013", "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Its safer if you use d/M/yyyy for the format, since that will handle both single digit and double digits day/month. But that really depends if you are expecting single/double digit values.

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Your date format day/Month/Year might be an acceptable date format for some cultures. For example for Canadian Culture en-CA DateTime.Parse would work like:

DateTime dt = DateTime.Parse("24/01/2013", new CultureInfo("en-CA"));

Or

System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-CA");
DateTime dt = DateTime.Parse("24/01/2013"); //uses the current Thread's culture

Both the above lines would work because the the string's format is acceptable for en-CA culture. Since you are not supplying any culture to your DateTime.Parse call, your current culture is used for parsing which doesn't support the date format. Read more about it at DateTime.Parse.

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Another method for parsing is using DateTime.TryParseExact

DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("24/01/2013", 
                            "d/M/yyyy", 
                            CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                            DateTimeStyles.None,
    out dt))
{
    //valid date
}
else
{
    //invalid date
}

The TryParse group of methods in .Net framework doesn't throw exception on invalid values, instead they return a bool value indicating success or failure in parsing.

Notice that I have used single d and M for day and month respectively. Single d and M works for both single/double digits day and month. So for the format d/M/yyyy valid values could be:

• "24/01/2013"
• "24/1/2013"
• "4/12/2013" //4 December 2013
• "04/12/2013"

For further reading you should see: Custom Date and Time Format Strings

Convert time string to DateTime in c#

This is as simple as parsing a DateTime with an exact format.

Achievable with

var dateStr = "14:00";
var dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(dateStr, "H:mm", null, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None);

The DateTime.ParseExact() (msdn link) method simply allows you to pass the format string you wish as your parse string to return the DateTime struct. Now the Date porition of this string will be defaulted to todays date when no date part is provided.

To answer the second part

How can I get a DateTime object with current date as the date, unless
current time already 14:00:01, then the date should be the next day.

This is also simple, as we know that the DateTime.ParseExact will return todays date (as we havevnt supplied a date part) we can compare our Parsed date to DateTime.Now. If DateTime.Now is greater than our parsed date we add 1 day to our parsed date.

var dateStr = "14:00";

var now = DateTime.Now;
var dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(dateStr, "H:mm", null, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None);

if (now > dateTime)
    dateTime = dateTime.AddDays(1);

c# - Convert string to datetime with DateTime.ParseExact

DateTime.ParseExact has an overload that takes a string array of possible formats to use for parsing. Use that overload and reduce your code to a line or two.

string[] formats = new string[] {"dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss:fff",
                                 "dd-MM-yyyy H:mm:ss:fff",
                                 "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss:f",
                                 "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss", 
                                 ....};

finished = DateTime.ParseExact(a, formats, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal |
                DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal);

If you don't know all the possible formats you could also read them from an external file to avoid recompiling your application if a new format pops up

Also, as said in the comments below, I prefer to use DateTime.TryParseExact to have more control on the outcome of the parsing and avoid a costly exception handling in case of a format not recognized.

Converting a UK formatted string DateTime ( dd/MM/yyyy ) to a valid DateTime where the culture may change

Method 1 - You can use ParseExact by giving the input format

string inputdate = "01/12/2019";
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(inputdate, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Method 2 - If you have many input formats, you can use TryParseExact

string inputdate = "01/12/2019";
DateTime dateTime = ParseDate(inputdate )

private static DateTime ParseDate(string providedDate)
{
    DateTime validDate;
    string[] formats = { "dd/MM/yyyy", "dd.MM.yyyy" };
    var dateFormatIsValid = DateTime.TryParseExact(
        providedDate,
        formats,
        CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
        DateTimeStyles.None,
        out validDate);
    return dateFormatIsValid ? validDate : DateTime.MinValue;
}

Convert string to DateTime in c#

Try this:

DateTime.ParseExact(str, "yyyyMMddHHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

If the string may not be in the correct format (and you wish to avoid an exception) you can use the DateTime.TryParseExact method like this:

DateTime dateTime;
DateTime.TryParseExact(str, "yyyyMMddHHmmss",
    CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out dateTime);

C# to Convert String to DateTime

Try DateTime.ParseExact instead.

Example:

CultureInfo provider = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
dateString = "Sun 15 Jun 2008 8:30 AM -06:00";
format = "ddd dd MMM yyyy h:mm tt zzz";
result = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, format, provider);

More examples are available at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w2sa9yss.aspx

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