Make the DateTime's day leading zero optional when parsing

Question

I am converting strings to DateTime and have the strings coming in like this:

string dateTimeBeforeDayTen = '2/05/2016';
string dateTimeBeforeAfterTen = '12/05/2016';

Now if I am parsing the dateTimeBeforeAfterTen, I know I can use:

DateTime myDateTime;
DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTimeBeforeAfterTen, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out myDateTime);

But what do I do if I want to parse for either of them. I know I could do:

DateTime myDateTime;
if(!DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTimeBeforeAfterTen, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out myDateTime));
    DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTimeBeforeAfterTen, "d/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out myDateTime);

But is there a better way to do this? I am storing the DateTime format in the DB and would like to keep it as a single string.

Mandatory link - https://xkcd.com/1179/ for using custom date time formats to serialize values... — Alexei Levenkov, Aug 23 '16 at 16:36
` I am storing the DateTime format...` save DateTime - not string - to the DB — Ňɏssa Pøngjǣrdenlarp, Aug 23 '16 at 16:40
ugly way, must be better way but : DateTime myDate = new DateTime( datestring.split('/')[0], datestring.split('/')[1],datestring.split('/')[2], ); i forgot to cast — , Aug 23 '16 at 16:41
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/988353/format-net-datetime-day-with-no-leading-zero — , Aug 23 '16 at 16:44

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 23 '16 at 16:43

A single "d" will work both for one and two number days. So just use "d/MM/yyyy".

Format string

"d"

The day of the month, from 1 through 31.

2009-06-01T13:45:30 -> 1

2009-06-15T13:45:30 -> 15

This works:

string dateTimeBeforeDayTen = "2/05/2016";
string dateTimeBeforeAfterTen = "12/05/2016";

DateTime myDateTime, myDateTime2;

DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTimeBeforeDayTen, "d/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out myDateTime);
DateTime.TryParseExact(dateTimeBeforeAfterTen, "d/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out myDateTime2);

Thanks for this. Just to add, the same works for hours as well which I just used! — Alan Schapira, Aug 24 '16 at 08:26

Make the DateTime's day leading zero optional when parsing

1 Answers1