Question

Possible Duplicate:
DateTime.ParseExact format string

How do I convert a string to a DateTime object?

Example:

Sun Oct 07 2012 00:00:00 GMT+0500 (Pakistan Standard Time)

I have tried, DateTime.Parse, Convert.TODateTime, etc. None work. I get an error that it is not a valid DateTime string.

Here is how I am sending datetime to MVC controller’s action method from jquery:

$.ajax({
        url: '@Url.Action("actionMethodName", "controllerName")',
        type: "GET",
        cache: false,
        data: {
               startDate: start.toLocaleString(),
               endDate: end.toLocaleString()
         },
         success: function (data) {
         }
});

I need to be able to get the datetime back in the controller action method:

public JsonResult actionMethodName(string startDate, string endDate)
{
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(startDate) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(endDate))
        {
            var start = DateTime.Parse(startDate); //Get exception here
            var end = DateTime.Parse(endDate);     //Get exception here 
        }

        //Rest of the code
}

Answer 1

I would recommend you to use the .toJSON() method on your javascript Date instances in order to serialize them as ISO 8601 format:

$.ajax({
    url: '@Url.Action("actionMethodName", "controllerName")',
    type: "GET",
    cache: false,
    data: {
        startDate: start.toJSON(),
        endDate: end.toJSON()
    },
    success: function (data) {
    }
});

Now you don’t need to be parsing anything in your controller, you will be working with dates directly:

public ActionResult ActionMethodName(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
{
    //Rest of the code
}