Is there a way to Parse String to DateTime, when the string comes with different formats

Question

I am working on building a console application which read a .csv file and add the values to the database. now i have some CSV columns which store date time values. But those column sometimes contain the datatime with seconds while sometimes it does not. here is a sample of some data for the date field:-

03/30/2016 10:55:49
04/01/2016 11:02

now when i try to parse the above string into a date-time as follow:-

formattedDateCreated = DateTime.ParseExact(fields[DateCreatedIndex], "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

i will get the following exception when i try to parse the second date :-

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime

so can anyone advice on this please? how i can make my Parse more dynamic to work on date formats with seconds or without seconds?? Thanks

The second parameter of ParseExact (the format) could be also an array of formats — Steve, Oct 05 '17 at 15:16

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 05 '17 at 15:17

3

You can use the overload that supports multiple formats:

string[] formats = {"MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss", "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm" };
DateTime formattedDateCreated = DateTime.ParseExact(fields[DateCreatedIndex], formats, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None);

answered Oct 05 '17 at 15:17

Tim Schmelter

450,073
74
686
939

and will it apply them in order, or it will chose the best match ? – John John Oct 05 '17 at 15:22
1

@johnG: first match wins, so i would use default format first and better avoid formats like `MM/dd` + `dd/MM`, otherwise you might get no exception but an incorrect `DateTime`. If you want to see the [source](http://referencesource.microsoft.com/#mscorlib/system/globalization/datetimeparse.cs,4279d8830fc9e88f,references) – Tim Schmelter Oct 05 '17 at 15:23

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 05 '17 at 15:17

DateTime.ParseExact can also takes multiple formats:

var formats = new []
{
    "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss",
    "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm"
};
var dates = "03/30/2016 10:55:49;04/01/2016 11:02".Split(';')
    .Select(x => DateTime.ParseExact(x, formats, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None));

Is there a way to Parse String to DateTime, when the string comes with different formats

2 Answers2