validate date in an ASP.NET MVC application

Question

I want to check my date input value on server side.

Code:

public class DateAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
    public override bool IsValid(object value)
    {
        DateTime date;
        string str = value.ToString();

        if (!DateTime.TryParseExact(str, "dd.MM.yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date))
            return false;

        return true;
    }
}

but it always FALSE for object values like 21.11.2011 0:00:00

I can't to understand what I am doing wrong?

Christopher Stevenson · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-23 21:59:26Z

1

"mm" is a 2-digit minute. "MM" is a 2-digit month

If you want July to parse from "07", use "MM". On the other hand, if you want to parse "7" to July, use "M". Here's the huge list of formats.

EDIT: Using DateTime.TryParseExact to parse with a format string:

string dateString = "21.12.1985 3:12:15";
DateTime date;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString,"d.M.yyyy h:mm:ss",null,DateTimeStyles.None, out date))
    Console.WriteLine(date);
    else
        Console.WriteLine("Invalid date");

edited Jul 23, 2013 at 21:59

answered Jul 23, 2013 at 21:46

Christopher Stevenson

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3 Comments

Yuriy Mayorov Over a year ago

You need MM not mm, MM is month while mm is minute. Thanks, you are right, but dd.MM.yyyy doesn't work too (

Christopher Stevenson Over a year ago

You need to use TryParseExact

Christopher Stevenson Over a year ago

Okay, modified my answer.

Haney · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-23 21:43:32Z

0

You need MM not mm, MM is month while mm is minute.

answered Jul 23, 2013 at 21:43

Haney

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3 Comments

Yuriy Mayorov Over a year ago

You need MM not mm, MM is month while mm is minute. Thanks, you are right, but dd.MM.yyyy doesn't work too (

Haney Over a year ago

It's possible the time part is messing it up. Try yyyy.MM.dd hh:mm:ss ?

Dave Ziegler Over a year ago

@YuriyMayorov: I removed the time element and your code returned true. With the time, I get false. ???

Magnum · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-23 21:55:38Z

I would wrap it around a try-catch statement and try to use Parse method on it. Since your current code doesn't actually return a particular formatted string, just whether it's valid or not I would do the following below. DateTime are just long ticks away from a particular date/time, so the format doesn't matter. From http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/1k1skd40.aspx we can see that there are only two-exceptions it'll throw, so just take these two exceptions into account and you can add code accordingly.

public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
    if (value != null)
    {
        try
        {
            DateTime date = DateTime.Parse(value.ToString());
            return true;
        }
        catch (ArgumentNullException)
        {
            // value is null so not a valid string
        }
        catch (FormatException)
        {
            //not a valid string
        }
    }
    return false;
}

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