How to convert different dates with string format to specific format like YYYYMMDD

Question

I am trying to convert different string date formats to a specific format i.e., YYYYMMDD and all the incoming dates are valid. How can I return a new list of strings representing this format

for dates there's DateTime type in C#. and [here](https://learn.microsoft.com/ru-ru/dotnet/api/system.datetime.tostring?view=net-5.0) you can find how to convert it to string with formatting — ba-a-aton, Jun 09 '21 at 12:56
A date 3/4/2000 could be a third of April or a fourth of March. Without additional hints it is impossible to know for sure which is it. — Dialecticus, Jun 09 '21 at 12:56
Why do you want to convert it to a list of strings? A better choice would be to parse the input list into a list of DateTime instances. Types exist for a reason. — Igor, Jun 09 '21 at 12:58

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 09 '21 at 12:57

0

Use DateTime.Parse() to get the date/time information into a standard DateTime object and then you can output it any way that you like.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.datetime.parse?view=net-5.0

answered Jun 09 '21 at 12:57

Matt Small

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 09 '21 at 13:05

public static List<string> TransformDateFormat(List<string> dates)
{
    var formats = new string[]
    {
        "yyyy/MM/dd",
        "dd/MM/yyyy",
        "MM-dd-yyyy",
        "yyyyMMdd"
    };

    return dates
        .Select(date => DateTime.ParseExact(date, formats, null).ToString("yyyyMMdd"))
        .ToList();
}

You must specify all possible formats.

How to convert different dates with string format to specific format like YYYYMMDD

2 Answers2