Question

I have a textbox – DateOfBirth
I follow following steps from validating data to saving it in database.

Step 1: When I submit text, I validate if date is in correct format(dd/mm/yyyy):

string Pattern = @"^(0?[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[/](0?[1-9]|1[012])[/](19|20)\d\d";

Step 2: If format is correct, I convert input value of textbox to datetime format:

IFormatProvider theCultureInfo = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB", true);
DOB = DateTime.ParseExact(txtDOB.Value, "dd/mm/yyyy", theCultureInfo);

Step 3: Then I send value to database and save as it is in my table.

I got an issue here:
For date “04/04/2012” everything works fine.
But if I submit date “4/04/2012” or “04/4/2012”, the step 2 throws an exception:

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

How do I handle this issue ?

Should I escape step 2 and do conversion in database query instead ???

Answer 1

because the method expects that you have two places for the date and you only supplied one value, so to solve your problem, remove one d in ParseExact format.

IFormatProvider theCultureInfo = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-GB", true);
DOB = DateTime.ParseExact(txtDOB.Value, "d/M/yyyy", theCultureInfo);