Parse a date/time string in specific format

Question

I receive some file from external system, the date/time is represented as 28/Jul/2015:01:02:36 -0500.

What is the best way to parse it in to DateTime type in C#?

That looks like a pretty weird format to me. My guess would be you're going to need to use some combination of Regex methods and the DateTime.Parse method. — Dan Forbes
– Dan Forbes, Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 15:50
Could you confirm that there is no space and a colon between the year and the hour and there is a space between seconds and -0500? — Steve
– Steve, Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 15:51
@Steve I confirm. What you see is what I copied from log file as is. — hardywang
– hardywang, Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 15:52
You may want to consider using DateTimeOffset instead of DateTime. Especially if -05:00 is not an offset in your time zone. — Matt Johnson-Pint
– Matt Johnson-Pint, Commented Aug 5, 2015 at 16:01

Glenn Ferrie · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-05 15:56:33Z

5

You should look here for more information on Custom Date Formats in C#:

Custom Date Formats on MSDN

However here is some code to get you started.

First, determine the correct format string you expect. and then use ParseExact

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var date = "28/Jul/2015:01:02:36 -0500";
    var formatstring = "dd/MMM/yyyy:HH:mm:ss K";

    var d = DateTime.ParseExact(date, formatstring, null);
    Console.WriteLine(d);
    Console.ReadLine();
}

Hope this helps!

answered Aug 5, 2015 at 15:56

Glenn Ferrie

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user844705 · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-05 15:57:53Z

2

How about this?

DateTime d;
DateTime.TryParseExact(target,"dd/MMM/yyyy:hh:mm:ss zzzz", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None, out d);

answered Aug 5, 2015 at 15:57

user844705

Comments

psoshmo · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-05 15:57:51Z

2

try

CultureInfo provider = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
var dateString = "28/Jul/2015:01:02:36 -0500";
var format = "dd/MMM/yyyy:hh:mm:ss zzzz";
var date = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString,format,provider);

answered Aug 5, 2015 at 15:57

psoshmo

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