Parsing/Converting String as Date Time using C#

In this blog, we are going to parse the string to specific Date Time data Type.

In this blog, we are going to parse the string to specific Date Time data Type.

Usage:

DateTime a3 = TryParseDateTime("31/5/2012", DateTime.MinValue);//TRUE
DateTime b3 = TryParseDateTime("05/32/2012", DateTime.MinValue);//FALSE

Response.Write(string.Format("A:{0},B:{1}", a3.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"),

b3.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy")) + "<br/>");

Output:

A:31/05/2012,B:01/01/0001

Method1: DateTime.TryParse

Best to use if there is uncertain about the input string.

        /// <summary>
        /// Note it takes your System dateTime format like d/M/yyyy etc.
        /// It wont throw error. Instead it gives the ifFail value if error occurs
        /// </summary>
        public DateTime TryParseDateTime(string input, DateTime ifFail)

        {
            DateTime output;

            if (DateTime.TryParse(input, out output))
            {
                output = output;
            }
            else
            {
                output = ifFail;
            }

            return output;
        }

Method 2: DateTime.Parse

If you sure about the input string going to be valid, then go for this method.

/// <summary>
        /// Parses the string as DateTime. But if datetime string is invalid, then it throws error
        /// </summary>
        public DateTime ParseDateTime(string input)
        {
            return DateTime.Parse(input);
        }

Thanks for reading this article. Have a nice day.