Can't parse JSON data to .NET DateTime

Question

It's pretty simple. I have a string

string s = "/Date(1474408920000)/"

And I want to convert it to a date:

DateTime date = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DateTime>(s);

But I get the error:

"Error parsing comment. Expected: *, got D. Path '', line 1, position 1."

What's going on here?

Thanks for your help!

Answer 1

Your json string is not valid but can easily be fixed by surrounding it with "

string s = @"""/Date(1474408920000)/""";

Now DateTime date = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DateTime>(s); will work

Answer 2

        var LogDate = new DateTime(2016, 9, 20, 22, 2, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);

        string JsonDate = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(LogDate, new JsonSerializerSettings {
            DateFormatHandling = DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat
        });

        Console.WriteLine(JsonDate);
        Console.ReadLine();

Output from this code gives you a proper JSON date format:

"\/Date(1474408920000)\/"

So your string should look like this:

string s = "\"\\/Date(1474408920000)\\/\"";

Answer 3

try serializing the DateTime obj to JSON using below code.

        var dateTime = DateTime.Now;
        var jsonDate = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(dateTime, 
                            new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializerSettings() { 
                                DateFormatHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat, 
                                DateParseHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateParseHandling.DateTime });

jsonDate would hold this value "\\"\\\\/Date(1474408920000)\\\\/\\"" or something in this format.
Now deserialize your json date string using below code.

var dateObj = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DateTime>(dateString, 
                            new Newtonsoft.Json.JsonSerializerSettings() { 
                                DateParseHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateParseHandling.DateTime, 
                                DateFormatHandling = Newtonsoft.Json.DateFormatHandling.MicrosoftDateFormat });