C# Convert a string "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss 'UTC'" to date time

Question

I have a string, as an example: "2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC"

And I want to convert it to date time but I have got the following error:

The string '2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC' was not recognized as a valid DateTime.There is an unknown word starting at index '20'."

Notice that I have tried:

var date =  DateTime.Parse("2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC");

and

DateTime dt;
DateTime.TryParseExact("2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC", 
                       "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss 'UTC'", 
                       CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out dt)

Same issue... @DmitryBychenko: "The string '2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC' was not recognized as a valid DateTime. There is an unknown word starting at index '20'." — Vlad Breabăn, Jun 20 '22 at 17:35
DateTime.TryParseExact("2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss UTC", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out dt); Main things to note are that I removed the quote marks around 'UTC' and updated it to HH instead of hh — Will Moffat, Jun 20 '22 at 17:41
The exact code you've posted for item 2, just changing hh to HH, works fine for me... — Jon Skeet, Jun 20 '22 at 17:53

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 20 '22 at 17:45

There are two things to be done:

as mentioned in the comments: use HH for the 24 hour format
adjust the result to an actual UTC time

DateTime.TryParseExact("2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss 'UTC'", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out dt);
DateTime utc = new DateTime(dt.Ticks,  DateTimeKind.Utc);

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 20 '22 at 18:12

According to this answer you need to convert time zone name to time shift.

So to do it first we need to get table of time zone name to time zone shift. I copy it from here and convert to dictionary.

And the full algorithm is:

Find time zone name
Find it shift in dictionary
Replace time zone name with shift
Parse date string

var dateString = "2022-04-17 14:46:31 UTC";
var lastWhiteSpace = dateString.LastIndexOf(' ');
var timeZoneName = dateString.Substring(lastWhiteSpace+1);
var correctDate = dateString.Replace(timeZoneName, TimeZoneToShift[timeZoneName]);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(correctDate, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss zzz", null);

public static Dictionary<string, string> TimeZoneToShift = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
    {"ACDT", "-10:30"},
    {"ACST", "-09:30"},
    {"ADT", "+03:00"},
    {"AEDT", "-11:00"},
    {"AEST", "-10:00"},
    {"AHDT", "+09:00"},
    {"AHST", "+10:00"},
    {"AST", "+04:00"},
    {"AT", "+02:00"},
    {"AWDT", "-09:00"},
    {"AWST", "-08:00"},
    {"BAT", "-03:00"},
    {"BDST", "-02:00"},
    {"BET", "+11:00"},
    {"BST", "+03:00"},
    {"BT", "-03:00"},
    {"BZT2", "+03:00"},
    {"CADT", "-10:30"},
    {"CAST", "-09:30"},
    {"CAT", "+10:00"},
    {"CCT", "-08:00"},
    {"CDT", "+05:00"},
    {"CED", "-02:00"},
    {"CET", "-01:00"},
    {"CST", "+06:00"},
    {"EAST", "-10:00"},
    {"EDT", "+04:00"},
    {"EED", "-03:00"},
    {"EET", "-02:00"},
    {"EEST", "-03:00"},
    {"EST", "+05:00"},
    {"FST", "-02:00"},
    {"FWT", "-01:00"},
    {"GMT", "+00:00"},
    {"GST", "-10:00"},
    {"HDT", "+09:00"},
    {"HST", "+10:00"},
    {"IDLE", "-12:00"},
    {"IDLW", "+12:00"},
    {"IST", "-05:30"},
    {"IT", "-03:30"},
    {"JST", "-09:00"},
    {"JT", "-07:00"},
    {"MDT", "+06:00"},
    {"MED", "-02:00"},
    {"MET", "-01:00"},
    {"MEST", "-02:00"},
    {"MEWT", "-01:00"},
    {"MST", "+07:00"},
    {"MT", "-08:00"},
    {"NDT", "+02:30"},
    {"NFT", "+03:30"},
    {"NT", "+11:00"},
    {"NST", "-06:30"},
    {"NZ", "-11:00"},
    {"NZST", "-12:00"},
    {"NZDT", "-13:00"},
    {"NZT", "-12:00"},
    {"PDT", "+07:00"},
    {"PST", "+08:00"},
    {"ROK", "-09:00"},
    {"SAD", "-10:00"},
    {"SAST", "-09:00"},
    {"SAT", "-09:00"},
    {"SDT", "-10:00"},
    {"SST", "-02:00"},
    {"SWT", "-01:00"},
    {"USZ3", "-04:00"},
    {"USZ4", "-05:00"},
    {"USZ5", "-06:00"},
    {"USZ6", "-07:00"},
    {"UT", "+00:00"},
    {"UTC", "+00:00"},
    {"UZ10", "-11:00"},
    {"WAT", "+01:00"},
    {"WET", "+00:00"},
    {"WST", "-08:00"},
    {"YDT", "+08:00"},
    {"YST", "+09:00"},
    {"ZP4", "-04:00"},
    {"ZP5", "-05:00"},
    {"ZP6", "-06:00"},
};

C# Convert a string "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss 'UTC'" to date time

2 Answers2