How to convert string to a particular DateTime format?

Question

Hi I'm converting a string to DateTime variable but getting exception. Please tell me what is wrong in this method?

string str = "24-04-2014T15:18:18";
DateTime dtStartDateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(stime, "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Exception is:

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Answer 1

Use dd-MM-yyyyTHH:mm:ss format instead. Your string and format doesn't match exactly.

From DateTime.ParseExact method

Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format and culture-specific format information. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly.

string str = "24-04-2014T15:18:18";
DateTime dtStartDateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(str,
                                    "dd-MM-yyyyTHH:mm:ss",
                                     CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Here a demonstration .

By the way, I think your stime should be str :)

Answer 2

OK, so if I am understanding the question, I think this is what you need:

string str = "24-04-2014T15:18:18";
DateTime dtStartDateTime = DateTime.ParseExact(str, "dd-MM-yyyyTHH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
string stime = dtStartDateTime.ToString("yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ss");

This will take the text from the first format and give you the second format.