C＃-具有自定义日期格式的类型转换器

Question

This is my code to check if the value can be converted to given type.

public static object TryParseObject<T>(object valueObject)
    {
        string value = null;

        try
        {
            value = Convert.ToString(valueObject);
            var converter = TypeDescriptor.GetConverter(typeof(T));

            if (converter != null)
            {
                //Cast ConvertFromString(string text) : object to (T)
                return (T)converter.ConvertFromString(value);
            }
            return default(T);
        }
        catch
        {
            //Can't parse
        }
    }

This works as it should be. Now I need to convert from date string to DateTime with custom format only (say for ex. format: "MM.DD.YYYY HH:mm:ss"). How can I achieve that?

Should I handle the DateTime scenario separately? like:

 if(typeof(T) == typeof(DateTime)) {...}
 else {...}

I'm looking to see if I can use the existing code with few changes. Thanks.

Answer 1

If you change a method signature to the same as other TryParse.. methods

public static bool TryParseObject<T>(object valueObject, out T outValue)
{
    //your parsing code
}

Then you can create overloads for any type you want. With separated method your code stay clean and easy to understand

public static bool TryParseObject(object valueObject, out DateTime outValue)
{
    const string EXACT_FORMAT = "MM.DD.YYYY HH:mm:ss";
    // your parsing to DateTime
}

public static bool TryParseObject(object valueObject, out int outValue)
{
    // your parsing to int
}