Converting a String to DateTime

How do you convert a string such as `2009-05-08 14:40:52,531` into a `DateTime`?

You have basically two options for this. `DateTime.Parse()` and `DateTime.ParseExact()`.

The first is very forgiving in terms of syntax and will parse dates in many different formats. It is good for user input which may come in different formats.

ParseExact will allow you to specify the exact format of your date string to use for parsing. It is good to use this if your string is always in the same format. This way, you can easily detect any deviations from the expected data.

You can parse user input like this:

DateTime enteredDate = DateTime.Parse(enteredString);

If you have a specific format for the string, you should use the other method:

DateTime loadedDate = DateTime.ParseExact(loadedString, "d", null);

`"d"` stands for the short date pattern (see [MSDN for more info][1]) and `null` specifies that the current culture should be used for parsing the string.


[1]:

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string input;
DateTime db;
Console.WriteLine("Enter Date in this Format(YYYY-MM-DD): ");
input = Console.ReadLine();
db = Convert.ToDateTime(input);

//////// this methods convert string value to datetime
///////// in order to print date

Console.WriteLine("{0}-{1}-{2}",db.Year,db.Month,db.Day);

Try the below, where strDate is your date in 'MM/dd/yyyy' format

var date = DateTime.Parse(strDate,new CultureInfo("en-US", true))

You could also use DateTime.TryParseExact() as below if you are unsure of the input value.

DateTime outputDateTimeValue;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531", "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,fff", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, out outputDateTimeValue))
{
return outputDateTimeValue;
}
else
{
// Handle the fact that parse did not succeed
}

try this

DateTime myDate = DateTime.Parse(dateString);

a better way would be this:

DateTime myDate;
if (!DateTime.TryParse(dateString, out myDate))
{
// handle parse failure
}