Parse DateTime using C# [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Parse Datetime string

I'm trying to parse the following DateTime in C#:

string date = "Wed Jul 25 19:41:36 2012 +0200"
DateTime result = DateTime.Parse(date);

And I'm getting the following error:

System.FormatException : String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Anybody knows what is the problem here?

@PeterRitchie Definite duplicate if you ignore the format, I've personally answered 3 of these now, but technically the format has changed each time :-) — Adam Houldsworth
– Adam Houldsworth, Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 15:44
Not sure why people are closing as duplicate... telling the OP that parse strings exist doesn't answer the entire question. — Adam Houldsworth
– Adam Houldsworth, Commented Jul 26, 2012 at 15:55

John Woo · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-26 15:49:10Z

11

You can use DateTime.ParseExact() for that. For example

UPDATED:

string dateString = "Your date";
string format = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy %K";
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, format, 
              CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(dateTime);

Documentation Here and DateTime string formatting options here.

You can also view here {Complr.com}

edited Jul 26, 2012 at 15:49

answered Jul 26, 2012 at 15:33

John Woo

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5 Comments

Adam Houldsworth Over a year ago

Not to be picky, as that is very close, but it doesn't cater for the time-zone offset that the OP has included.

John Woo Over a year ago

I just updated the answer after some research. sorry for the first one.

Daniel Peñalba Over a year ago

Ok, thanks, I will accept your answer, you was the first ...

John Woo Over a year ago

@AdamHouldsworth thank you for the link on formats.. i upvoted your answer too.

Adam Houldsworth Over a year ago

@John No problem, ditto after the edit :-)

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:14:19Z

You need to specify the parsing format as that is non-standard. DateTime.ParseExact allows you to specify the format.

Something like this will work, ~~however I've yet to verify if that time-zone part is working correctly, seems to give me a date/time at 1800 hrs...~~ Ah this is because where I am it is BST (GMT +1).

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string date = "Wed Jul 25 19:41:36 2012 +0200";
        string format = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy %K";
        //string format = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy zzz"; // Also works.
        DateTime dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(date, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

DateTime string formatting options are documented here, you can create a parse string using any combination of these to parse a DateTime successfully.

Another example of this can be found here: Parse DateTime From Odd Format

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