Converting a localized string to datetime

Question

I'd like to convert a localized string (preferably any supported language) to a datetime object. The string is for example (in dutch): woensdag 3 juni 2015 9:12:14 uur CEST

The localized string is always of the same format: [day name] [day] [month] [year] [hour] [minute] [second] [literal word for hour] [time zone] The string provided to the program can't be changed on the host application (not enough privileges).

I've read that in C# .NET I need to use something like an InvariantCulture object to change a DateTime object to a localized string date.

Is it however possible to go the other way around? If so is it possible with my requirements above?

Thanks for any help in advance!

Have you tried something like DateTime.Parse("donderdag 3 juni 2015 9:12:14 uur CEST", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture): ? That should give you a usable datetime. — Falgantil, Oct 21 '15 at 12:23
Possible duplicate of [Parse string to DateTime in C#](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5366285/parse-string-to-datetime-in-c-sharp) — Liam, Oct 21 '15 at 12:24
@Liam Partially true, although OP asks specifically in relation to language-specific representations, whereas the post you reference is for a general date-time structure. — Falgantil, Oct 21 '15 at 12:25
The duplicate is more because this doesn't show any research effort. The OP should be able to easily take the dupe question and try themselves. Then if they have a **specific question** (which this is not) then they can ask that — Liam, Oct 21 '15 at 12:27
You _can't_ parse this string because it is **not** a valid `DateTime` in Gregorian Calendar. [June 3th 2015](http://www.calendar-365.com/calendar/2015/June.html) is Wednesday, not Thursday (which is "donderdag" in Dutch) — Soner Gönül, Oct 21 '15 at 12:29
The invariant culture is the exact *opposite* of what you want here. You need the right format string, with the right culture, which certainly *isn't* the invariant culture. — Jon Skeet, Oct 21 '15 at 12:29
and you have no information about the culture ? So the date could be parsed specific to that culture ? — Kapoor, Oct 21 '15 at 12:56
You can parse the string with appropriate CultureInfo, it supports localized format. — krafty, Oct 21 '15 at 13:01
@SonerGönül that is indeed correct, my mistake. It has been edited. — Dragon54, Oct 21 '15 at 13:09

Soner Gönül · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-21T13:16:35.577

First of all, DateTime is time zone awareness. It does not have any information about time zone. That's why you need to parse this CEST part as a literal delimiter. (AFAIK, there is no way to parse them other than escape it) Looks like uur means "hour" in english, you need to specify it as a literal as well.

Then, you can parse it your string with dddd d MMMM yyyy H:mm:ss 'uur CEST'" format and nl-BE culture like;

string s = "woensdag 3 juni 2015 9:12:14 uur CEST";
DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParseExact(s, "dddd d MMMM yyyy H:mm:ss 'uur CEST'", 
                          CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("nl-BE"),
                          DateTimeStyles.None, out dt))
{
    Console.WriteLine(dt); // 03/06/2015 09:12:14
}

You definitely not wanna use InvariantCulture to parse this string. This culture is english-based and keep DayNames with their english names as Wednesday etc..

By the way, Nodatime has ZonedDateTime structure and looks like it supports a time zone with it's Zone property.

Accepted you answer as it is a more clean one (does a TryParse and escapes, delimits literals) — Dragon54, Oct 21 '15 at 13:11

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 21 '15 at 13:07

I've managed to solve the issue thanks to the comments placed underneath the original question that was asked.

By using string replacements I can ditch the localized 'uur' which stands for hour in dutch along with the CEST.

The following code did the trick for me:

CultureInfo nlculture = new CultureInfo("nl-NL");
string test = "woensdag 3 juni 2015 9:12:14";
DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(test, "dddd d MMMM yyyy H:mm:ss", nlculture);
System.Windows.MessageBox.Show(dt.ToString());

To come back on one of the requirements, which was having it support multiple languages. I can (after checking again with the things I can work with) capture the used language, thus letting me able to support multiple languages.

Thanks all for the help

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 21 '15 at 13:25

0

The code below should work. I'm getting an error but I think it is due to an old version of VS installed on my computer

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Xml;
using System.Xml.Linq;
using System.Globalization;


namespace ConsoleApplication53
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            DateTime x = DateTime.ParseExact("3 june 2015 9:12:14 PM GMT", "d MMMM yyyy h:mm:ss tt Z", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
            string y = x.ToString("d MMMM yyyy h:mm:ss tt K", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("nl-NL"));
            string dutchTimeString = "3 juni 2015 9:12:14 uur CEST";

            DateTime date = DateTime.ParseExact(dutchTimeString, "d MMMM yyyy h:mm:ss tt Z", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("nl-BE"));

        }

    }
}

answered Oct 21 '15 at 13:25

jdweng

33,250
2
15
20

First, this does not answer the question. Your string does not have any AM/PM designator but you use `tt` in your `ParseExact` method. That does not make sense. And second, your string does not even the same with OP. Third, using `Z` with `DateTime` parsing is not recommended. It will be better to use it with `DateTimeOffset` instead. – Soner Gönül Oct 21 '15 at 13:45
uur is AM/PM designator. CEST is GMT which is offset zero. If you used google translation you would of found this out. – jdweng Oct 21 '15 at 13:49
No. [`uur` means](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/uur) `hours` in Dutch. It is not a designator or something. `nl-BE` culture has an empty strings for them (at least in .NET 4 and Win7). And your string is _still_ not the same with OP's. `CEST` offset is not relevant because `DateTime` structure does not support _any_ time zone information. – Soner Gönül Oct 21 '15 at 14:08
If I go to google translation and include uur and then remove uur the PM translation comes and goes. it may translate to hours, but it seems the meaning is actually PM. I think the real reason for this posting is the fact that the Net Library doesn't properly support the AM/PM (tt) in Dutch. – jdweng Oct 21 '15 at 16:29

Converting a localized string to datetime

3 Answers3