input different ways of date to powershell

Question

I am writing a script to get the results based on the user input, here user can give in date or date time... i need to get the results based on the input (date or datetime).

I have tried like below:

$StartDate  = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter the start date of the logs, Ex: 17/07/2017 or 17/07/2017 09:00:00'

$culture = [Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture

$pattern = 'dd\/MM\/yyyy HH:mm:ss', 'dd\/MM\/yyyy'

$params['After'] = [DateTime]::ParseExact($StartDate, $pattern, $culture)

getting the below error:

Exception calling "ParseExact" with "3" argument(s): "String was not recognized as a valid DateTime."
+     $params['After'] = [DateTime]::ParseExact <<<< ($StartDate, $pattern, $culture)
    + CategoryInfo          : NotSpecified: (:) [], MethodInvocationException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : DotNetMethodException

Please suggest, am i missing anything here.

Chris N · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-26 15:34:58Z

5

I've had good luck using PowerShell's default Get-Date function on dates. I would try just using the following:

$StartDate = Get-Date (Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter the start date of the logs, Ex: 17/07/2017 or 17/07/2017 09:00:00')

answered Jul 26, 2017 at 15:34

Chris N

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BenH · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-26 16:50:33Z

2

If you still would like to use ParseExact(), your issue was that $pattern was an array of strings rather than a string. You could check which pattern to use and then only pass that pattern.

$StartDate  = Read-Host -Prompt 'Enter the start date of the logs, Ex: 17/07/2017 or 17/07/2017 09:00:00'

$culture = [Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture

if ($startdate -match '^\w\w\/\w\w\/\w\w\w\w$') {
    $pattern = 'dd\/MM\/yyyy'
} else {
    $pattern = 'dd\/MM\/yyyy HH:mm:ss'
}

$params['After'] = [DateTime]::ParseExact($StartDate, $pattern, $culture)

answered Jul 26, 2017 at 16:50

BenH

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Comments

Bill_Stewart · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-26 17:38:30Z

0

I would probably just use a short function; something like:

function Read-Date {
  param(
    [String] $prompt
  )
  $result = $null
  do {
    $s = Read-Host $prompt
    if ( $s ) {
      try {
        $result = Get-Date $s
        break
      }
      catch [Management.Automation.PSInvalidCastException] {
        Write-Host "Date not valid"
      }
    }
    else {
      break
    }
  }
  while ( $true )
  $result
}

Then you can write this:

Read-Date "Enter a date"

The code will prompt until the user enters a valid date-like string. Once the user enters a valid date string, the function's output is a [DateTime] object.

answered Jul 26, 2017 at 17:38

Bill_Stewart

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