Parsing a string like "03/2020" to a DateTime variable - c#

I have to parse a string, which always look like 03/2020 (so the format is MM/yyyy), to a DateTime variable.
How do I achieve it the most proper way? (Without splitting the string into substrings)
I already found the DateTime.ParseExact function, but I'm confused by the third parameter (culture-specific format information).
Is the DateTime.ParseExact the way to go or is there a better function/way to achieve the goal?
var inputString = "03/2020";
var inputStringFormat = #"MM/yyyy";
// var inputStringAsDateTime = ???
Edit 1
As additional info I have to say, that the string (inputString) is read from a barcode. So the separator in it is always the /.
Tim Schmelter explained in his answer, how to mask such separators.
It looks like I have to change my inputStringFormat variable to:
var inputStringFormat = #"MM'/'yyyy";

If the first day of the month is good for you, you can use DateTime.ParseExact:
var d = DateTime.ParseExact(inputString, inputStringFormat, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Usually, i use ToDateTime method of Convert class. I have tested it, it's working.
string inputString = "03/2020";
DateTime datetime = Convert.ToDateTime(inputString));
It will give output like 3/1/2020 12:00:00 AM means it will gives you output according to your system's date format.

With such simple date format you can use
var inputArr = inputString.split(#"/");
var inputStringAsDateTime = new DateTime(inputArr[0], inputArr[1], 1);
however for culture you can use constant
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture

Related

Trimend (Date and Time)

2014-01-02 08:18:21""
I am reading this column from an excel file, but I need to remove the "" for it to be a valid date, this is my code below, please kindly advice.
n.RBank_Authorizer_date = DateTime.Parse(dRow[4].ToString()>TrimEnd);
You can use the overload of TrimEnd that takes a params char[]:
str = str.TrimEnd('"');
or with your code:
n.RBank_Authorizer_date = DateTime.Parse(dRow[4].ToString().TrimEnd('"'));
Note that dRow[4].ToString() can throw an exception if the field can be null. I would use the strongly typed DatRow.Field extension method that supports also nullable types.
n.RBank_Authorizer_date = DateTime.Parse(dRow.Field<string>(4).TrimEnd('"'));
By the way, if the DataRow already stores this datetime as DateTime you don't need to convert it to string and back to DateTime at all. You just have to use the correct type with Field.
You can always use the Replacemethod from string:
var dateString = dRow[4].ToString().Replace("\"", "");
The "ToString" should not be needed, but just in case you are getting something different than a string :)
As an alternative, if your all rows ends with "", you can specify this in your custom date and time format and can use DateTime.ParseExact method like;
string s = #"2014-01-02 08:18:21""";
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact(s, #"yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss'""'",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(dt);

DateTime Feature in C#

I have to retrieve a date from the database in format YYYY-MM-DD and display it as the format:
Mon 25th
Currently my code looks like:
Label fixtureDateLabel = new Label();
fixtureDateLabel.Text = dReaderGameweekFixtures["fixtureDate"].ToString();
How do I adapt this to display in the format I want?
You can do this using the ToString method:
var result = DateTime.Parse(
dReaderGameweekFixtures["fixtureDate"].ToString()
).ToString("ddd dd");
To my knowledge you'll need a little something extra to formulate the suffix to the day number, which is already conveniently provided here.
You need to format the string according to one of the available formats:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/az4se3k1.aspx
Pass it to ToString method.
Have go on the link below, would suffice your need and increase your knowledge...
http://www.dotnetperls.com/datetime-format
You should use ToString method of DateTime with format parameter
Check some info here - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx
Label fixtureDateLabel = new Label();
DateTime d = dReaderGameweekFixtures["fixtureDate"];
fixtureDateLabel.Text = d.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");

Trimming a string from Excel

I get a string from Excel as so: "\"11/01/2011 16:00\""
What's the most efficient way to trim this in C# so it can be parsed as a DateTime?
You could probably just trim the string, not sure how consistent that format will be though
var trimmedString = excelString.Trim('\\', '"');
That's assuming the string contains the slashes and those speech marks. If it's just the speech marks (because visual studio has escaped the string when displaying it) then all you need is
var trimmedString = excelString.Trim('"');
You don't need to trim it at all - you can just call DateTime.ParseExact or DateTime.TryParseExact which contains the quotes at each end:
string text = ...;
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(text, "'\"'dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm'\"'",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
I don't know whether that's more efficient than trimming (there's more parsing, but no extra string to create) but I would use it for its precision: if ever the data form changes (e.g. there's no longer a quote) you'll find out because you're stating your expectations, effectively.
string myString = "\"11/01/2011 16:00\"";
DateTime time = DateTime.Parse(myString.Substring(1, myString.Length - 2));
Always in that format? Can't you just substring the first 3 and last 3 characters and then Parse to a Date with a specific (supplied) date format?
s = s.Substring(1, s.Length-2);
You're looking for the parseExact method.
char[] trimChars = {'\"'};
string dateTime = "\"11/01/2011 16:00\"".Trim(trimChars);
DateTime result = DateTime.ParseExact(dateTime, "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Formatting string to string Date Format .net 2.0

Given a string value eg "03252013" I need to convert this string to be in this format "DDMMYYYY".
Which function do you use? The result should be "25032013"
string myTestDate="03252013";
string resultDate=??
Thanks
Use DateTime.ParseExact method. Then use ToString to convert to appropriate format.
var dt = DateTime.ParseExact("03252013", "MMddyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
var result = dt.ToString("ddMMyyyy"); //25032013
string resultDate = DateTime.ParseExact(myTestDate, "MMddyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).ToString("ddMMyyyy");
Simply parse then re-format:
string input = "03252013"
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(input, "MMddyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
string resultDate = date.ToString("ddMMyyyy");
If your needs really are that simple I would consider just switching the values around...
string input = "03252013";
string output = input.Substring(2, 2) + input.Substring(0, 2) + input.Substring(4, 4);
...dont forget to validate the input before using substring (checking the length is 8 will probably be enough)
NOTE: If it is likely that your input or output formats will change then it would be more ideal to do the DateTime.Parse technique as suggested by many others. But if this is really the only situations then this method should provide better performance... slightly ;)
You, can use the Help of following code part to convert.
string resultDate = DateTime.ParseExact(myTestDate, "MMDDYYYY", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None).ToString("DDMMYYYY");
Use this:
resultDate = DateTime.Parse(myTestDate,"d").toString();
"d" is a format provider that says to farmat the date like this: DD/MM/YYYY

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime " format dd/MM/yyyy"

I am trying to convert my string formatted value to date type with format dd/MM/yyyy.
this.Text="22/11/2009";
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(this.Text);
What is the problem ?
It has a second override which asks for IFormatProvider. What is this? Do I need to pass this also? If Yes how to use it for this case?
Edit
What are the differences between Parse and ParseExact?
Edit 2
Both answers of Slaks and Sam are working for me, currently user is giving the input but this will be assured by me that they are valid by using maskTextbox.
Which answer is better considering all aspects like type saftey, performance or something you feel like
Use DateTime.ParseExact.
this.Text="22/11/2009";
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(this.Text, "dd/MM/yyyy", null);
You need to call ParseExact, which parses a date that exactly matches a format that you supply.
For example:
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(this.Text, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
The IFormatProvider parameter specifies the culture to use to parse the date.
Unless your string comes from the user, you should pass CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.
If the string does come from the user, you should pass CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, which will use the settings that the user specified in Regional Options in Control Panel.
Parsing a string representation of a DateTime is a tricky thing because different cultures have different date formats. .Net is aware of these date formats and pulls them from your current culture (System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture.DateTimeFormat) when you call DateTime.Parse(this.Text);
For example, the string "22/11/2009" does not match the ShortDatePattern for the United States (en-US) but it does match for France (fr-FR).
Now, you can either call DateTime.ParseExact and pass in the exact format string that you're expecting, or you can pass in an appropriate culture to DateTime.Parse to parse the date.
For example, this will parse your date correctly:
DateTime.Parse( "22/11/2009", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR") );
Of course, you shouldn't just randomly pick France, but something appropriate to your needs.
What you need to figure out is what System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture is set to, and if/why it differs from what you expect.
Although the above solutions are effective, you can also modify the webconfig file with the following...
<configuration>
<system.web>
<globalization culture="en-GB"/>
</system.web>
</configuration>
Ref : Datetime format different on local machine compared to production machine
You might need to specify the culture for that specific date format as in:
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-GB"); //dd/MM/yyyy
this.Text="22/11/2009";
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(this.Text);
For more details go here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/5hh873ya.aspx
Based on this reference, the next approach worked for me:
// e.g. format = "dd/MM/yyyy", dateString = "10/07/2017"
var formatInfo = new DateTimeFormatInfo()
{
ShortDatePattern = format
};
date = Convert.ToDateTime(dateString, formatInfo);
After spending lot of time I have solved the problem
string strDate = PreocessDate(data);
string[] dateString = strDate.Split('/');
DateTime enter_date = Convert.ToDateTime(dateString[1]+"/"+dateString[0]+"/"+dateString[2]);
private DateTime ConvertToDateTime(string strDateTime)
{
DateTime dtFinaldate; string sDateTime;
try { dtFinaldate = Convert.ToDateTime(strDateTime); }
catch (Exception e)
{
string[] sDate = strDateTime.Split('/');
sDateTime = sDate[1] + '/' + sDate[0] + '/' + sDate[2];
dtFinaldate = Convert.ToDateTime(sDateTime);
}
return dtFinaldate;
}
use this to convert string to datetime:
Datetime DT = DateTime.ParseExact(STRDATE,"dd/MM/yyyy",System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture.DateTimeFormat)
Just like someone above said you can send it as a string parameter but it must have this format: '20130121' for example and you can convert it to that format taking it directly from the control. So you'll get it for example from a textbox like:
date = datetextbox.text; // date is going to be something like: "2013-01-21 12:00:00am"
to convert it to: '20130121' you use:
date = date.Substring(6, 4) + date.Substring(3, 2) + date.Substring(0, 2);
so that SQL can convert it and put it into your database.
Worked for me below code:
DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(this.Text, CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR"));
Namespace
using System.Globalization;
You can use also
this.Text = "22112009";
DateTime newDateTime = new DateTime(Convert.ToInt32(this.Text.Substring(4, 4)), // Year
Convert.ToInt32(this.Text.Substring(2,2)), // Month
Convert.ToInt32(this.Text.Substring(0,2)));// Day
Also I noticed sometimes if your string has empty space in front or end or any other junk char attached in DateTime value then also we get this error message

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