Question

How Can I convert following date string to dateTime:

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 9:38 am PST

I tried DateTime.Parse(string)

I got following error:

The string was not recognized as a valid DateTime. There is an unknown word starting at index 25. System.SystemException {System.FormatException}

UPDATE

I tried to get weather from yahoo and I tried to get date like this:

Date = DateTime.Parse(feed.Element(yWeatherNS + "condition").Attribute("date").Value),

I debugged it. date attribute is correct (like above).

Thanks.

Answer 1

I don’t think there’s anything in the BCL which will parse time zone abbreviations. (They should be avoided where possible anyway, as they can be ambiguous.)

If you don’t mind losing the time zone information, you can use something like this:

using System;
using System.Globalization;

static class Test
{
    static void Main()
    {
        string text = "Fri, 18 Dec 2009 9:38 am PST";
        DateTime parsed = TrimZoneAndParse(text);
        Console.WriteLine(parsed);
    }

    static DateTime TrimZoneAndParse(string text)
    {
        int lastSpace = text.LastIndexOf(' ');
        if (lastSpace != -1)
        {
            text = text.Substring(0, lastSpace);
        }
        return DateTime.ParseExact(text,
            "ddd, dd MMM yyyy h:mm tt",
            CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
    }
}

Note that that assumes a fixed date/time format and culture. Your needs may vary, and you should also consider using TryParse or TryParseExact if this is user input.