.NET Framework DateTime parsing ParseExact

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Example

var dateString = "2015-11-24";

var date = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "yyyy-MM-dd", null);
Console.WriteLine(date);

11/24/2015 12:00:00 AM

Note that passing CultureInfo.CurrentCulture as the third parameter is identical to passing null. Or, you can pass a specific culture.

Format Strings

Input string can be in any format that matches the format string

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("24|201511", "dd|yyyyMM", null);
Console.WriteLine(date);

11/24/2015 12:00:00 AM

Any characters that are not format specifiers are treated as literals

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015|11|24", "yyyy|MM|dd", null);
Console.WriteLine(date);

11/24/2015 12:00:00 AM

Case matters for format specifiers

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-01-24 11:11:30", "yyyy-mm-dd hh:MM:ss", null);
Console.WriteLine(date);

11/24/2015 11:01:30 AM

Note that the month and minute values were parsed into the wrong destinations.

Single-character format strings must be one of the standard formats

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("11/24/2015", "d", new CultureInfo("en-US"));
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24T10:15:45", "s", null);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24 10:15:45Z", "u", null);

Exceptions

ArgumentNullException

var date = DateTime.ParseExact(null, "yyyy-MM-dd", null);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24", null, null);

FormatException

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("", "yyyy-MM-dd", null);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24", "", null);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-0C-24", "yyyy-MM-dd", null);
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24", "yyyy-QQ-dd", null);

// Single-character format strings must be one of the standard formats
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24", "q", null);

// Format strings must match the input exactly* (see next section)
var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24", "d", null); // Expects 11/24/2015 or 24/11/2015 for most cultures

Handling multiple possible formats

var date = DateTime.ParseExact("2015-11-24T10:15:45", 
  new [] { "s", "t", "u", "yyyy-MM-dd" }, // Will succeed as long as input matches one of these
  CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, DateTimeStyles.None);

Handling culture differences

var dateString = "10/11/2015";
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "d", new CultureInfo("en-US"));
Console.WriteLine("Day: {0}; Month: {1}", date.Day, date.Month);

Day: 11; Month: 10

date = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, "d", new CultureInfo("en-GB"));
Console.WriteLine("Day: {0}; Month: {1}", date.Day, date.Month);

Day: 10; Month: 11



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