Parsing string from SQL Server database into DateTime variable..... exception "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."

Question

string str,a;
DateTime dat, aa;

using (con = new SqlConnection(@"Data Source=daniyal\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=webassign;Integrated Security=True"))
{
    con.Open();

    using(com = new SqlCommand("select * from tasks",con))
    {
        rdr = com.ExecuteReader();

        while (rdr.Read())
        {
            str = rdr.GetValue(1).ToString();
            dat = DateTime.ParseExact(str, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        }
    }
}

I want to parse a varchar variable into datetime saved in my SQL Server

You are parsing s and not str, is it a typo? Anyway, what's the exact value of the string that you parse? — Paolo Costa, May 02 '15 at 15:46
Please post a sample of how your data is stored in Sql Server E.g. 12/05/2014? — Praveen Paulose, May 02 '15 at 15:46
The Dateformat probably doesnt match, or the value in SQL is null. — user230910, May 02 '15 at 15:46
possible duplicate of [Datetime format Issue String was not recognized as a valid DateTime](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16014101/datetime-format-issue-string-was-not-recognized-as-a-valid-datetime) — Rohit, May 02 '15 at 15:47
Sorry but I voted your question as an "unclear" because you didn't _even_ told us what is `s` exactly or it is a type or not. — Soner Gönül, May 02 '15 at 15:52
It works if you store the date as "19/04/2005" and not "19/4/2005". I don't know how to deal with "19/4/2005" without manually parsing the string. It would work with format "dd/M/yyyy" but of course it's not correct. — Paolo Costa, May 02 '15 at 15:59
Good, I wrote it again as an answer in the case you want to vote it :-) — Paolo Costa, May 02 '15 at 16:06
Try using [`GetDateTime()`](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.data.sqlclient.sqldatareader.getdatetime(v=vs.110).aspx) instead of `GetValue()` — Zohar Peled, May 02 '15 at 18:19

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered May 02 '15 at 16:04

It doesn't work because the month is indicated with one digit but in the format string there are two MM. If you want to use ParseExact "the format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly." https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/w2sa9yss%28v=vs.110%29.aspx

If you can't change the way you save the date in the database you need to find another strategy.

Parsing string from SQL Server database into DateTime variable..... exception "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."

1 Answers1