Convert string to specific DateTime format

Question

I've been googling for a while now and for the life of me can't seem to find a solution. I thought this would be easy but it's taking too long and am turning to stackoverflow.

I need to convert a string which contains a date and time to a DateTime variable. I've formatted the string in the exact format I want to store it in but when i convert it to a DateTime it keeps adding the seconds which I don't want. I want it stored as 01/01/2010 09:00AM. Here's the code I've been using so far:

DateTime.ParseExact(startTime,"MM/dd/yyyy hh:mmtt", null);

..but it keeps appending seconds to it. Please advise.

Please don't duplicate tags like "ASP.NET C#" in the title. Just leave them in the tags. — John Saunders
– John Saunders, Commented Jul 30, 2010 at 18:00

David · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-30 17:39:20Z

9

If it's stored as a DateTime data type, it's stored correctly, but your UI is displaying it wrong. The DateTime data type always has the seconds (milliseconds, etc) regardless of how you set the value. The problem is in how it's being displayed back to the user.

You need to display the date you want in the right string format at display time as in

Label1.Text = startTime.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mmtt");

Edit - added

To format it in a GridView, see here: http://peterkellner.net/2006/05/24/how-to-set-a-date-format-in-gridview-using-aspnet-20using-htmlencode-property/

edited Jul 30, 2010 at 17:39

answered Jul 30, 2010 at 17:15

David

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6 Comments

Joey Over a year ago

im doing string->DateTime, not DateTime->string ...I need to store this in a database with type DateTime

David Over a year ago

See my edit... You can't change how the database (or .Net runtime, etc) stored a particular datatype. As Yogi Berra would say if he were a programmer, the datatype is what it is, and contains the fields that it contains. A datetime datatype will have the seconds regardless of how you insert it. It's really just a matter of how it is displayed back to you.

Joey Over a year ago

I understand what you mean. The problem is I'm outputting this in a gridview and am not sure how to manipulate the data being outputted. Do I use a gridview event and manipulate it in codebehind?

user27414 Over a year ago

@mobile - you might ask a different question then: "How do I specify the date/time format displayed in a grid view?".

David Over a year ago

AHHH... I see... See this: peterkellner.net/2006/05/24/…

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Jimmy Hoffa · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-30 17:17:51Z

I think that when you say it's adding seconds, you mean when you try to read it out it's reading the seconds as well, you want to do something like

DateTime parsedDateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(startTime, "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mmtt", null);
string dateTime = parseDateTime.ToString("MM/DD/YYY hh:mmtt");

DateTime class always has seconds, and milliseconds, and nanoseconds I believe stored in it. Always, Whether you fill them in or not it assumes the, though you just have to format how you read the info from the DateTime object to make it not give you the pieces of DateTime data which you didn't fill in or are not using.

If you're storing it in a database, understand the database will also store all of this information regardless of whether or not you give it to it. There are some different SQL DateTime types like SmallDate and etc which store varying amounts of DateTime data, don't know if there's one that stores to the hour and not seconds as well, but with SQL you can also format the way you select the data out, or just select it out into your C# as a C# DateTime object, and then when you represent it again, format the ToString() so it does not present the data you don't want/have.

Andy Evans · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-30 17:21:11Z

2

Try this.

    DateTime dt;
    if (DateTime.TryParse(startTime, out dt))
    {
        string newDateTime = dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mmtt");
    }

answered Jul 30, 2010 at 17:21

Andy Evans

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Comments

Charles Bretana · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-30 17:32:24Z

If you have a string, you must first guarantee that it can indeed be converted to a datetime.
So first, do so. Once you have a datetime, store it in a database as is, you do not need to be copncerned about format, (as others have said here).

and then, if you need to, reformat it to a different representation only if you need to display it somewhere..

string s = "21 June 2010 09:23:56";
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParse(s, out dt))
   // dit is a valid datetime, storeit or whatever
else
   throw ApplicationException(
        "{0} is not a valid datetime.", s);
//  --  and now you can redisplay dt any way you want -----
debug.Print(s.ToString("d MMM yyyy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("HH:mm:ss");
debug.Print(s.ToString("dddd, d MMM yy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("MMM d, yyyy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("HH:mm:ss dddd");

// etc...

Jayesh Sorathia · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-26 08:00:01Z

0

Here is example for this.

    String strDate="12/20/2013";
    string strFormat="dd/MM/yyyy";
    DateTime objDT;

    if (DateTime.TryParseExact(strDate, strFormat, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out objDT) == true)
    {
        Response.Write("<b>Formatted DateTime : </b>" + objDT.ToString());
    }
    else
    {
        Response.Write("<b>Not able to parse datetime.</b>");
    }

answered Apr 26, 2013 at 8:00

Jayesh Sorathia

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