Question

I’m not sure why my head is spinning right now – long day for sure – but I need some help with this one.

I have a DateTime variable and a String variable. I ultimately need to compare the two for equality. The DateTime will either be null or a DateTime. The string will either be a date represented as a string (mm/dd/yy) or a single word. A simple bool indicating the two variables are equal is all I need but I’m really struggling with this.

At the moment, I get an error that says date2 is uninitialized. Suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks!

Here is what I started with…

string date1= "12/31/2010";
DateTime? date2= new DateTime(1990, 6, 1);

bool datesMatch = false;

DateTime outDate1;
DateTime.TryParse(date1, out outDate1);

DateTime outDate2;

if (date2.HasValue)
{
   DateTime.TryParse(date2.Value.ToShortDateString(), out outDate2);
}

if (outDate1== outDate2)
{
   datesMatch = true;
}

if (!datesMatch)
{
   // do stuff here;
}

FYI – date1 and date2 are initialized at the top for dev purposes only. The actual values are pulled from a database.

---

EDIT #1 – Here is my latest. How do I get rid of the error caused by outDate2 not being initialized? I placed an arbitrary date in there and it clears the error. It just feels wrong.

    string date1 = "12/31/2010";
    DateTime? date2 = new DateTime(1990, 6, 1);

    bool datesMatch = false;

    DateTime outDate1;
    bool successDate1 = DateTime.TryParse(date1, out outDate1);

    DateTime outDate2;
    bool successDate2 = false;

    if (date2.HasValue)
    {
        successDate2 = DateTime.TryParse(date2.Value.ToShortDateString(), out outDate2);
    }

    if (successDate1 && successDate2)
    {
        if (outDate1 == outDate2)
        {
            datesMatch = true;
        }
    }

    if (!datesMatch)
    {
        // do stuff here;
    }

Answer 1

DateTime.TryParse returns a boolean, so you know whether or not it succeeded. Use that return value.

string date1= "12/31/2010";
DateTime? date2= new DateTime(1990, 6, 1);

bool datesMatch = false;

DateTime outDate1;
bool success = DateTime.TryParse(date1, out outDate1);

DateTime outDate2;

if (success)
{
   // etc...
}