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Asked: 2026-05-16T01:00:19+00:00

I have a string I need to convert back to a date. I can

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I have a string I need to convert back to a date. I can call .ToString(“yyyyMMdd”) and get the string i want. My question is how can I convert that back into a date? I’m trying something like the following with no luck.

DateTime d;
var formatInfo = new DateTimeFormatInfo {ShortDatePattern = "yyyyMMdd"};
if (DateTime.TryParse(details.DetectionTime.Date, formatInfo, DateTimeStyles.None, out d))
{
   lit.Text = d.ToShortTimeString(); //would like 07/30/2010 as the text
}

I’ve never used DateTimeFormatInfo before if that isn’t obvious. Can someone point me in the right direction. I know I could probably use substring and create a new DateTime(y, m, d) etc… I’m just wondering since c# interpreted .ToString() correctly, if it can’t derive a date from the very same string it output.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The reverse of DateTime.ToString("yyyyMMdd") is DateTime.TryParseExact, passing "yyyyMMdd" as a format string.

    IFormatProvider is a bit of a red herring. You’ll normally pass either :

    • Thread.CurrentThread.Culture, if you’re parsing a date typed by the user, when you should obey the user’s date preferences
    • Or CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, if you’re parsing a date provided by a program, when your behaviour shouldn’t depend on the preferences the user has set up
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