Question

I have a problem while converting a string whose value is dd.mm.yyyy to DateTime in c#

string OriginalDateFormat = "28.06.2009";
DateTime dt= Convert.ToDateTime(OriginalDateFormat);

Throwing an exception "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."

But if it is in mm.dd.yyyy then it is running fine.

I googled and got lots of sites but all in vain

Any idea?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Use DateTime.ParseExact and specify the exact format string:

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("28.06.2009", "dd'.'MM'.'yyyy",
                                  CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

If this is the value is from user input, you probably want to use DateTime.TryParseExact so you can handle failure gracefully:

DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("28.06.2009", "dd'.'MM'.'yyyy",
                        CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                        DateTimeStyles.None, // Default formatting options
                        out dt))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Successfully parsed {0}", dt);
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("Did not recognise date");
}