Converting Java Date string into C# DateTime

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Parse DateTime with timezone of form PST/CEST/UTC/etc

OK, I have following code in Java that converts my Date object into String:

SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss zzz");
String str = dateFormat.format(new Date());
// outputs: 2012-12-17 15:44:57 CST

I am sending that String over the wire to WebService written in C#. So, how would I parse back that String into valid DateTime considering that following doesn't work because zzz in C# is different:

DateTime.ParseExact(parts[2], "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss zzz", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture.DateTimeFormat);

And before anyone suggests it - I know I can go with UTC time, but I need to do it this way.

Any ideas?

Possible duplicates [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/241789/parse-datetime-with-timezone-of-form-pst-cest-utc-etc), [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8754563/parse-string-datetime-containing-timezone-info), and [here](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/193095/why-cant-net-parse-a-date-string-with-a-timezone) — D Stanley, Dec 17 '12 at 21:55
Why do you _need to do it this way_? When calling the web service why not convert the date to whatever format you want? — Dave Zych, Dec 17 '12 at 22:02

Oded · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-17T22:03:11.373

2

CST is not a valid .NET timezone identifier.

In .NET, these are all numeric offsets - +0700, -0500 etc...

You will need to output a numeric timezone offset if you want it to be parsed by .NET.

I suggest using yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss Z in Java, as can be seen here.

The alternative is to convert CST to -0600 using string.Replace, but this is both not scalable and can fall over with the ambiguities of named timezones (CST can mean different timezones depending on where you are).

edited Dec 17 '12 at 22:03

answered Dec 17 '12 at 21:55

Oded

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You obviously haven't read this part: "So, how would I parse back that String into valid DateTime ___considering that following doesn't work because zzz in C# is different___" – nikib3ro Dec 17 '12 at 21:56
@kape123 - You either change the Java to use `Z` instead of `zzz` or, in C# convert the named timezones to their numeric equivalents (though the named timezones are ambiguous) – Oded Dec 17 '12 at 21:58
Didn't know about Z - thanks! So Z on Java side, zzz on C# side and it works perfectly. – nikib3ro Dec 17 '12 at 22:10

Converting Java Date string into C# DateTime

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