ASP.Net 2.0 C# DateTime IFormatProvider Using ParseExact

Updated on 09 Jun 2009, Published on 20 Feb 2008

In the previous article C# Convert String to DateTime you learnt the use of Convert.ToDateTime function in C# ASP.Net 2.0. Following are 2 other methods to convert the DateTime format using IFormatProvider:

1. DateTime.ParseExact

2. DateTime.Parse

To use IFormatProvider you have to pass the culture info for DateTime format coz in different cultures DateTime format of displaying the sequence of month and date varies.

DateTime Format Examples:

You can see the live samples and examples of C# DateTime format from the following links:

For French Culture use the following:

IFormatProvider culture = new CultureInfo("fr-Fr", true);

For US English use the following:

IFormatProvider culture = new CultureInfo("en-US", true);

Both cultures mentioned above accept the different DateTime Formats.

If you are using DateTime.Parse then you have to pass the MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss format of DateTime for French culture and dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss for US English culture. You have to check the format for different cultures by changing the position of month and day.

Using DateTime Parse

dt = DateTime.Parse(myDateTimeString, culture, DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault);

Using DateTime ParseExact

dt = DateTime.ParseExact(myDateTimeString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", culture, DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault);

C# Code to ParseExact the DateTime String

string myDateTimeString;

myDateTimeString = "19/02/2008 05:44:00";

IFormatProvider culture = new CultureInfo("fr-Fr", true);

dt = DateTime.ParseExact(myDateTimeString, "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss", culture, DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault);

Response.Write(dt.Day + "/" + dt.Month + "/" + dt.Year);

Output:

You can see the outputs of above C# code from the following link:

DateTime Parse and ParseExact using IFormatProvider

Convert String to DateTime

Date Formats using ToString Function

Using C# Function to Get Current DateTime and C# ToString Function you can format the DateTime values into the specified format very easily.

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4 Responses to "ASP.Net 2.0 C# DateTime IFormatProvider Using ParseExact"

aaditya sharma

This Code is not running. a error occured string(MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss) is not valid DateTime Plz give me right solution.

top54u.com

Hi Aaditya

I think you are getting error message due to wrong DateTime format string passed to the DateTime.ParseExact function.

If you are passing Date format as 30/06/2008 00:0:00 then use dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss and if you are passing Date format string as 06/30/2008 00:00:00 then use MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss.

Hope this will resolve your problem. Otherwise send your code to us for further consultation.

Lars Dahl

"dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss" in not valid. As hh is 12 hours and it contain no AM/PM information, thus the format is ambiguous.

Try with "dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss" instead. Here HH is 24 hours format.

asp

DD/MM/YYYY hh:mm:ss tt ->for 12 hours with am/pm
DD/MM/YYYY HH:mm:ss ->for 24 hours

DD - date
MM - month
YYYY - year
HH - 24 hours
hh - 12 hours
mm - minutes
ss - seconds
tt - am/pm indication