'string' does not contain a definition for 'todatetime'

Question

I am running into the error 'string' does not contain a definition for 'ToDateTime' during the part of my code that is making sure the current date value is populated. Here are the pieces of code:

public class LegalTransactionRec
{
    public string AccountNumber { get; set; }
    public string CostAmount { get; set; }
    public string SSN { get; set; }
    public int BatchID { get; set; }
    public Attorney Attorney { get; set; }
    public DateTime TransactionDate { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
    public int TransactionCode { get; set; }
}

Its going down right here:

TransactionDate = Form1.CheckDate(xlRange.Cells[i, 2].Value2.ToDateTime())

Here is the function that is checking to make sure the field is populated:

public static DateTime CheckDate(DateTime tranDate)
{
    DateTime date;
    if (tranDate == null)
    {
        throw new System.ArgumentException("Value cannot be null", "original");
    }
    else
    {
        date = tranDate;
    }
    return date;
}

EDIT: Code for xlRange:

        try
        {

            //workbook = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(txtbxFilename.Text);                      View above comment
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet worksheet = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)workbook.Worksheets.get_Item(1);
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range xlRange = worksheet.UsedRange;

            int rowCount = xlRange.Rows.Count;
            int colCount = xlRange.Columns.Count;

            for (int i = 1; i <= rowCount; i++)
            {
                for (int j = 1; j <= colCount; j++)
                {
                    lstTran.Add(new LegalTransactionRec()
                    {
                        AccountNumber = Form1.CleanString(xlRange.Cells[i, 1].Value2.ToString()),
                        CostAmount = Form1.TryToParse(Form1.CleanAmount(xlRange.Cells[i, 3].Value2.ToString())),
                        SSN = Form1.CleanString(xlRange.Cells[i, 6].Value2.ToString()),
                        TransactionDate = Form1.CheckDate(xlRange.Cells[i, 2].Value2.ToDateTime()),
                        Description = xlRange.Cells[i, 8].Value2.ToString(),
                        TransactionCode = xlRange.Cells[i, 4].Value2.ToInt() //Work on the CheckNull function later
                    });
                }
            }

        }

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Well, Value2 contains a string, plain an simple. You want to use something like this:

static DateTime ConvertToDateTime(object obj)
{
  if (obj == null)
    throw new ArgumentNullException();

  return (DateTime)obj;
}

And then just call

ConvertToDateTime(xlRange.Cells[i, 2].Value);

to get the date time.

Or, if Value still returns a string, you can do

static DateTime ConvertToDateTime(string str)
{
  if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(str))
    throw new ArgumentNullException();

  return DateTime.Parse(str);
}

You may have to call it like this:

ConvertToDateTime(xlRange.Cells[i, 2].Value as string);