Question

My string contains the value: 08/20/2012-10.32.19

I want the output in string datatype itself as 08/20/2012 10:32:19 [format is MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss].

Please help!!

Answer 1

You may convert the string to DateTime and then use .ToString() with the required format.

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("08/20/2012-10.32.19", "M/d/yyyy-HH.mm.ss",CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
string test = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");

Test will have

08/20/2012 10:32:19

EDIT: based on the comment

You may specify multiple date formats and then parse accordingly.

string[] formats = new string[] { "M/d/yyyy-HH.mm.ss", "yyyy-M-d-HH.mm.ss" };
string dtTest1 = DateTime.ParseExact("08/20/2012-10.32.19",
                                     formats, 
                                     CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                     DateTimeStyles.None)
                                     .ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");

Or in a single line

string dtTest2 = DateTime.ParseExact("08/20/2012-10.32.19",
                                     new string[] { "M/d/yyyy-HH.mm.ss", "yyyy-M-d-HH.mm.ss" }, 
                                     CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                     DateTimeStyles.None)
                                     .ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");

This will satisfy your both case of dates:

08/20/2012-10.32.19
2012-08-20-10.32.19