Question

I’m trying to convert a string to datetime to validate if user input is actually a date.

The error I’m getting is:

Cannot implicitly convert type bool to System.DateTime.  

I’ve been looking online for a while and can’t find anything specific enough to help me understand.

Code:

   public bool is21YearsOfAge(string argument)
   {
       DateTime _parsedDateArgument;
       DateTime convertStringToDate = System.DateTime.TryParse(argument, out >_parsedDateArgument);

       if (convertStringToDate > DateTime.Now)
       {
           //do something
       }

   }

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

The TryParse method returns a bool that informs you whether the parse was successful, rather than throwing an exception like the Parse method does. Try doing this:

DateTime convertStringToDate;
bool isDate = DateTime.TryParse(argument, out convertStringToDate);

If argument is a date, convertStringToDate will contain that date as a DateTime.