Question

I am having relative datetime string like:

• “5 minutes ago”
• “10 hours ago”
• “3 days ago” etc.

How can I convert this to exact datetime, as exactly opposite of this question

Answer 1

This code should work:

        string input = "10 days ago";

        DateTime result = DateTime.MinValue;
        int minutesMultiplier = 0;

        if (input.Contains("minute"))
            minutesMultiplier = 1;
        else
            if (input.Contains("hour"))
                minutesMultiplier = 60;
            else
                if (input.Contains("day"))
                    minutesMultiplier = 1440;
                else
                    throw new Exception("Couldn't parse time format");

        string numberStr = input.Split(' ')[0];
        int number;
        if (int.TryParse(numberStr, out number))
            result = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-number * minutesMultiplier);

It does the parsing of an interval name (such as minute, hour, day) and multiplies them to get the number of minutes because later on it uses DateTime.Now.AddMinutes method, same thing could be done using TimeSpan and calling DateTime.Now.Add.

Here is one more example that handles case of a string that contains more than one interval name, such as “10 hours and 15 minutes ago”:

        // If there are mixed interval types in an input string
        string input = "10 days and 10 hours ago";

        // Parse out the intervals and numbers
        var matches = Regex.Matches(input, 
                       @"(?<number>\d+)\s(?<interval>(day)|(minute)|(hour))");

        // Convert them to dictionary
        var dic = matches
            .Cast<Match>()
            .ToDictionary(
                key => key.Groups["interval"].Value, 
                o => int.Parse(o.Groups["number"].Value));

        // Calculate the total number of minutes for each interval
        DateTime result = DateTime.MinValue;
        int totalMinutes = 0;

        foreach (var keyValue in dic)
        {
             if (keyValue.Key.Contains("minute"))
                 totalMinutes += keyValue.Value;
            else
                 if (keyValue.Key.Contains("hour"))
                    totalMinutes += keyValue.Value * 60;
                else
                     if (keyValue.Key.Contains("day"))
                        totalMinutes += keyValue.Value * 1440;
                    else
                        throw new Exception("Unparsable time format");
        }

        result = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-totalMinutes);