Develop Reference

System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime - when trying to convert MM/DD/YYYY

I have following C# method:
DateTime ConvertStringToDate(string dateInString)
{
try {
//string SSD = dateInString;
//DateTime date = Convert.ToDateTime(SSD);
//string strDate = String.Format("{0:yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.fff}", date);
//return Convert.ToDateTime(strDate);
return DateTime.ParseExact(dateInString, "MM/dd/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}
catch (Exception) { }
return DateTime.Today;
}
The code in comment is another way I tried before.
I am in India and developing an ASP.NET WebForms application for my client in US. On one of its forms my client will enter the date in TextBox like 6/20/2018 which is MM/dd/yyyy format.
But in both the ways I am getting this error: System.FormatException: 'String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.'
I tried many solutions on SO but none of them are working.

return DateTime.ParseExact(dateInString, "M/d/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Check it here
The difference between my answer and Fabulous' one is that I also shortened dd to d so if your user writes 6/6/2018 it will work too

Your date format is MM/dd/yyyy and your input doesn't match. It is M/dd/yyyy
Based on your comment, to solve the 6/1/2018 issue, you'll need to do it as follows M/d/yyyy

Your format string is missing the AM/PM deisgnator:
return DateTime.ParseExact
(dateInString + " 12:00:00 AM", "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
// Here ---------------------------------------------^

Try without concatenation with string " AM"

I was getting the same exception a couple of days ago when it was 9th of July, I simply appended a 0 with 9 to match the date format.
Try appending a 0 in your month to match the MM in your date format

Sometimes your system time and date format is not same as test format you can try to change system date and time format

If you want to convert this (01-01-2022) type of string into date
then try below code.
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact("01-01-2022", "MM-dd-yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
If you want to convert this (01/01/2022) type of string into date
then try below code.
DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact("01-01-2022", "MM/dd/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

How to define DateTime parse format for general date format with optional time part?

What is the right DateTime format to parse a date from string in general date format ("G") with optional time part ("d")?
I can have two types of dates:
"12/13/2012 6:30:00 PM"
"3/29/2013"
How to parse them in unified way?
Right now I'm trying to parse with "G" format and then if it not parsed with "d" format.

If your CurrentCulture supports MM/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss tt (I assume your LongTimePattern has h) and M/dd/yyyy (I assume your ShortDatePattern has M) as standard date and time format, using DateTime.TryParse(String, out DateTime) method can solve all your problems.
string s = "";
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParse(s, out dt))
{
// Your string parsed successfully.
}
If these formats doesn't standard date and time format for your CurrentCulture, using DateTime.TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) overload can be the best choice because it takes formats part as a string array. That means, you can provide multiple formats and your string will be parsed with first successful match.
string s = "";
string[] formats = { "MM/dd/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", "M/dd/yyyy" };
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(s, formats, CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
// Your string parsed with one of speficied format.
}
Be careful when you parse string that have "/" custom format specifier. It has a special meaning of replace me with current culture or specified culture date separator. That means if your CurrentCulture's DateSeparator property is not /, your parsing operation will fail even if your string and formats are the same format.

Just use DateTime.Parse() or if you want to do a safe parse attempt DateTime.TryParse()
DateTime dt1, dt2;
dt1 = DateTime.Parse("12/13/2012 6:30:00 PM");
dt2 = DateTime.Parse("3/29/2013");
OR
DateTime.TryParse("12/13/2012 6:30:00 PM", out dt1);
DateTime.TryParse("3/29/2013", out dt2);
You only have to use DateTime.ParseExact() or provide the format if it differs from the accepted formats that DateTime.Parse() accepts, or if you only allow one particular format.

Converting string to date time

I have a date which comes in a string like so:
09/25/2014 09:18:24
I need it like this (yyyy-mm-dd):
2014-09-25 09:18:24
The object that this date goes into is a nullable date.
Tried this does not work:
DateTime formattedDate;
bool result = DateTime.TryParseExact(modifiedDate, "yyyy-MM-dd",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None,
out formattedDate);
Any clues?
Thanks in advance.

From DateTime.TryParseExact
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.
In your case, they are not. Use yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss format instead.
string s = "2014-09-25 09:18:24";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss",
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
Console.WriteLine(dt);
}
It is a little bit unclear but if your string is 09/25/2014 09:18:24, then you can use MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss format instead. Just a tip, "/" custom format specifier has a special meaning as replace me with current culture or supplied culture date separator. That means, if your CurrentCulture or supplied culture's DateSeparator is not /, your parsing operation will fail even if your format and string matches exactly.
If you have already a DateTime and you want to format it, you can use DateTime.ToString(string) method like;
dt.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); // 2014-09-25
or
dt.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); // 2014-09-25 09:18:24
Remember, a DateTime does not have any implicit format. It just contains date and time values. String representations of them have formats.

In answer to your question, to convert it as you prefer, do it like this:
string originalDate = "09/25/2014 09:18:24";
DateTime formattedDate;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(originalDate, "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out formattedDate))
{
string output = formattedDate.ToString("yyyy-mm-dd HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}
And then output will have your desired format.

DateTime dateOf = Convert.ToDateTime("09/25/2014 09:18:24");
string myFormat = "yyyy-mm-dd";
string myDate = dateOf.ToString(myFormat); // output 2014-18-25
Datetime format

Convert a string to DateTime in C#

I am trying to convert a string to a DateTime for some hours now,
The string looks like this
"20140519-140324" and I know its in UTC
I've allready tried this
DateTime ourDateTime;
bool success = DateTime.TryParseExact(Date, "yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, out ourDateTime);
StartTime.Text = ourDateTime.ToString("g");
and this
DateTime ourDateTime= DateTime.ParseExact(Date, "yyyy-MM-dd-HH:mm:ss", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
StartTime.Text = ourDateTime.ToString("g");
but none of these work. What I am not doing properly?

From DateTime.TryParseExact method
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.
In your example, they are not. Use yyyyMMdd-HHmmss custom format instead which exactly matches with your string.
Here an example on LINQPad;
string s = "20140519-140324";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "yyyyMMdd-HHmmss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, out dt))
{
dt.Dump();
}
Here a demonstration.
Your DateTime.ParseExact example also won't work because of the same reason.
For more information;
Custom Date and Time Format Strings

You are using the wrong format in the TryParseExact method.
the format parameter should be an indicator to the format of the input string.
therefor you need to do this:
DateTime ourDateTime;
bool success = DateTime.TryParseExact(Date, "yyyyMMdd-HHmmss", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, out ourDateTime);
if(success) {
StartTime.Text = ourDateTime.ToString("g");
}

String conversion to datetime independant of string format

I want to convert a string to datetime format.
The thing is that the string comes in different formats.
For instance, in the code below, strDate can be "2/20/2014 1:41:57 PM" or "20/02/2014 13:44:56".
Convert.ToDateTime(strDate) executes well just for one format (the one on the user browser settings) and generates an error for the other.
How can I successfully convert the string to datetime independently of the string format?
Thanks
DateTime dt = Convert.ToDateTime(strDate);

You can use DateTime.TryParseExact or Datetime.ParseExact with multiple formats like:
string dateStr = "20/02/2014 1:41:57 PM";
string[] dateFormats = new[]
{
"d/M/yyyy h:mm:ss tt",
"M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt",
};
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateStr,
dateFormats,
CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
DateTimeStyles.None,
out dt))
{
//valid dates for formats
}
else
{
//invalid date
}
the problem with this approach is that it would give you inconsistent results with strings like 10/02/2014 1:41:57 PM, The above code would parse it as 10th Feb 2014, not as October 2nd 2014, to avoid this you can customize your client side to return date in specific format and then parse accordingly.

you want DateTime.Parse() or DateTime.TryParse()
i.e.
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParse(stringDate, out dt)
{
//successful datetime conversion
}
if you know the string will be one of several exact formats, you can use DateTime.TryParseExact() and pass in a string array of each format (the second overload).