Question

string dt = "10/25/2010 11:40:05 PM";
var currentThread = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture; //ru-RU
DateTime dateTime = DateTime.Parse(dt); //Exception!

How to parse that dt?

UPDATE:
In my case DateTime can be represent as "25.10.2010 11:40:05" or "10/25/2010 11:40:05 PM"
Is these any “generic” method to parse it without changing CurrentCulture?

Answer 1

Use a custom Date and Time format string, using either ParseExact or TryParseExact.

DateTime dateTime;
DateTime.TryParseExact(
                       dt, 
                       "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt", 
                       CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                       DateTimeStyles.None,
                       out dateTime
                      );

The string cannot be parsed as a Russian DateTime representation since the Russian culture doesn’t use AM/PM, hence the use of the use of CultureInfo.InvariantCulture which is a US like culture (it represents no specific culture, but is modeled after the en-US one).