Parse date string .net

Question

What's the best way to convert a string such as:

Mon Nov 05 2012 21:27:58 GMT+0000 (GMT Standard Time)

in to a DateTime in .NET? I want to retain as much of the date as possible, i.e the TimeZone.

I'm trying this but it loses the GMT:

DateTime.ParseExact(date.Substring(0, 24),
                             "ddd MMM d yyyy HH:mm:ss",
                             CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Sounds like you need a mix of DateTimeOffset (which conserves the the offset, but not the time-zone) and a string that represents the timezone. Depending on the format of the string, you might be able to parse the timezone as well. — CodesInChaos
– CodesInChaos, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 12:58
Dupe of datetime.parse and making it work with a specific format ? — lstern
– lstern, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 12:58
@lstern How is that a dupe? The issue here isn't just parsing the time, but the conserving offset&timezone as well. — CodesInChaos
– CodesInChaos, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 12:59
@CodesInChaos Sorry. You can strip the zone name and use the "zzzz" token as shown here — lstern
– lstern, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 13:04
TimeZone is tricky as not part of DataTime. Old link but still informative. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973825.aspx Another stackoverflow.com/questions/2532729/… — paparazzo
– paparazzo, Commented Nov 6, 2012 at 14:08

Rik · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 13:43:44Z

3

It's not very robust, but it works for your example:

DateTimeOffset.ParseExact(date.Substring(0, 33) // remove time zone
                              .Remove(25,3)     // remove "GMT" before offset
                              ,"ddd MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz"
                              ,System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

edited Nov 6, 2012 at 13:43

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 13:07

Rik

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1 Comment

CodesInChaos Over a year ago

You'll need DateTimeOffset instead of DateTime to preserve the offset. And of course you need to store the timezone separately.

JSJ · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-06 13:13:37Z

-1

easy way to split the string and convert it into datetime using some formats. but what if some other formats comes to you.

try this one.

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/33298/C-Date-Time-Parser

sample

string str = @"Your program recognizes string : 21 Jun 2010 04:20:19 -0430 blah blah.";
DateTimeRoutines.ParsedDateTime pdt;
if(str.TryParseDateTime(DateTimeRoutines.DateTimeFormat.USA_DATE, out pdt) && pdt.IsUtcOffsetFound) 
Console.WriteLine("UTC date&time was found: " + pdt.UtcDateTime.ToString());

answered Nov 6, 2012 at 13:13

JSJ

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