Question

I’m using .NET 3.5 and I have a date that comes in as string in the following format:

Tue Jan 20 20:47:43 GMT 2009

First question, what is the name of that format? Second question, what’s the easiest and clearest way to convert this string into a datetime? I would love to be able to use a .net API/Helper method if possible.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I’ve already tried using DateTime.Parse and Convert.ToDateTime. None of those worked.

Answer 1

You can use the DateTime.TryParseExact() method with a suitable format string. See here

EDIT: Try something like this:

        DateTime dt;
        System.Globalization.CultureInfo enUS = new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-US"); 

        if ( DateTime.TryParseExact( "Tue Jan 20 20:47:43 GMT 2009", "ddd MMM dd H:mm:ss \"GMT\" yyyy", enUS, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault , out dt  ))
        {
            Console.WriteLine(dt.ToString() );
        }