Question

I have a date string in format “08/1999” I want to get the first date of the corresponding month. eg : in this case 08/01/1999.
It is simple for en-Us culture. I break the string, append “01” in the string to get 08/01/1999 and then DateTime.Parse(datestring) but this is valid for en-US culture only.

How can I do this for different culture ?

My datestring will always be in mm/yyyy format. and I am trying to obtain a DataTime obj from this dateString.

Answer 1

Use ParseExact method. Note upper-cased M’s are for months and lower-cased m’s for minutes.

string dateToConvert = "08/1999";
string format = "MM/yyyy";
CultureInfo provider = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;

DateTime result = DateTime.ParseExact(dateToConvert, format, provider); 

Output:

{1999-08-01 00:00:00}

You can also use Convert.ToDateTime and Parse methods. It will produce the same result, but in implicite way:

DateTime result = Convert.ToDateTime(dateToConvert, provider); // Output: {1999-08-01 00:00:00}
DateTime result = DateTime.Parse(dateToConvert, provider); // Output: {1999-08-01 00:00:00}

Read more at:

• Parsing Date and Time Strings
• Standard Date and Time Format Strings
• Custom Date and Time Format Strings