Question

I have some data picked up from an excel file.

I want to validate that the user has entered a valid date time string. I have tried to use DateTime.Parse method but found that certain values seem to be accepted.

For example,

If I submit 3.3 as a date time this is accepted by the DateTime.Parse method as a valid date time and outputs 03/03/2012 00:00:00

I want to want to block this. Only allowing the user to enter correctly formatted date times.

So for example a user could supply 03/03/2012 or 03/03/2012 12:30:00 but not values like 01022012 or 3.3.2012

Any Ideas?

Answer 1

You want to use DateTime.ParseExact or DateTime.TryParseExact

This allows you do parse from a date format string of your choice.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.datetime.tryparseexact.aspx

Examples here:-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms131044.aspx