ASP.NET “String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.”

Question

First off, I realize there's a million pages discussing this already. I have looked at least a hundred of them but cannot seem to make this work. My date and time is presented as a string, compiled from javascript to grab client's local time. It is formatted like this: 7/11/2015 8:34 PM. I currently have:

Dim datetimeformated = DateTime.ParseExact(lblDateTime.Text, "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm tt", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

I have tried many different variants, but this should be correct I think, yet it does not work. Any help is greatly appreciated. TIA

Answer 1

The correct format for your case is: M/dd/yyyy h:mm tt , and perhaps even, M/d/yyyy h:mm tt , if you can have the day of the month as a single digit.

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Explanation: Why your format string didn't work.

MM : means that you must always have 2 digits for the month, clearly not the case in your example.

dd : again, means that you must always have 2 digits for the day of the month. Is that the case? Adjust the parameter if needed.

HH : This actually means that you are expecting the hour value as 2-digits using the 24-hour clock (00-23), which is clearly wrong on both accounts. You can have a single digit, and you are not using the 24-hour clock, because you are using the AM/PM designator.

Relevant documentation link: Custom Date and Time Format Strings .