Why won't this string be converted to DateTime?

Question

2/22/2012 3:30:00

Surely that is an acceptable format to be converted to DateTime using Convert.ToDateTime()?

What errors are you getting? I just tried this in Visual C# 2010 Express and it works. Could it be an issue somewhere else? Please post the code that is giving a problem. — Jetti, Mar 07 '12 at 15:51
Yes, it surely is. http://ideone.com/DsXGZ Can you post your code, and also your current locale? (And somehow I knew @JonSkeet would be answering SkonJeet's question about this particular subject...) — Ry-, Mar 07 '12 at 15:51

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:51

I would personally avoid using Convert.ToDateTime. I generally prefer¹ to use DateTime.TryParseExact, specifying the culture and format string you expect - assuming you have an expected format, of course. If you don't, you have to ask yourself bigger questions.

For example:

DateTime value;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(text, "M/d/yyyy H:mm:ss",
                           CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                           DateTimeStyles.None,
                           out value))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Parsed to {0}", value);
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("Failed to parse");
}

That's a slightly odd format to start with - normally a 24-hour format would include a leading 0 for the hour, and a 12-hour format would include an am/pm designator.

¹ Well, I prefer to use Noda Time, but that's a different matter...

Judging by the poster's name, I'm sure he'll be excited to receive an answer from you. — Khan, Mar 07 '12 at 15:53
Haha indeed, the right answer aswell once again. Thanks Skon, errmm Jon. — SkonJeet, Mar 07 '12 at 15:59

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:50

4

Surely that is an acceptable format to be converted to DateTime using Convert.ToDateTime()?

Surely not. That would be true for some locales but for example I have a fr-FR locale and this is an invalid date. There are no 22 months in the year. Make sure you specify the format when parsing the date. You could use the TryParseExact method for this.

answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:50

Darin Dimitrov

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Alternatively to specifying the format, one could overcome the culture mismatch by specifing the culture using the `Convert.ToDateTime(string, IFormatProvider)` overload. – phoog Mar 07 '12 at 16:01

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 07 '12 at 16:02

1

If you got the Information about Year, Month, etc. separately as Integers I would rather use the Constructor of DateTime.

DateTime myDateTime  = new DateTime(year, month, day, hour, minute, second);

Usually nothing can go wrong with this...

answered Mar 07 '12 at 16:02

nothing9

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:52

0

It should be able to if you supply an IFormatProvider which specifies the culture (e.g. en-US in that case).

var date = Convert.ToDateTime("2/22/2012 3:30:00", CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US"));

answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:52

Trevor Pilley

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score 0 · Answer 5 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

0

Here is an example on how to use Convert.ToDateTime() which will help you to understand it :
Convert.ToDateTime example

Or You can try by following this example :
Convert String to DateTime

edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

Community

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answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:53

ChapMic

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 07 '12 at 15:55

This works just fine for me:

            DateTime dt = Convert.ToDateTime("2/22/2012 3:30:00");
        Console.WriteLine(dt.ToShortDateString());
        Console.WriteLine(dt.ToShortTimeString());

Of course I am not paying attention to localization like Darin suggests

Why won't this string be converted to DateTime?

6 Answers6