DateTime.ParseExact gives String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Question

I'm trying to parse a date string into a DateTime variable. I've found out that ParseExact is the way to do it, but I try this I get the error:

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

string timeFormat = "dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss";
DateTime startDate = DateTime.ParseExact(reader["startdate"].ToString(), timeFormat, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
DateTime nextDate = DateTime.ParseExact(reader["nextdate"].ToString(), timeFormat, null);

I've tried both with null (which happens to work on another page), and the CultureInfo.InvariantCulture .

reader["startdate"].ToString() output: 01-08-2012 15:39:09

and

reader["nextdate"].ToString() output: 01-08-2012 15:39:09

I think it should work, but it doesn't.

Somebody have an idea what is wrong? :)

Answer 1

You're using hh in your format string. That's a 12-hour "hour of day" field. The value 15 isn't in range...

You want HH instead, which is the 24-hour specifier.

See the MSDN custom date and time format strings documentation for more information.

Answer 2

Most probably due to the difference between your Server locale and the UI locale

One easier method will be to specify the globalization details in the web.config

like

<configuration>
   <system.web>
      <globalization culture="en-GB"/>
   </system.web>
</configuration>

OR in more detail

<globalization requestEncoding="utf-8" responseEncoding="utf-8" culture="en-GB" uiCulture="en-GB" />

But be sure this wont clash with your application in general

Answer 3

试试这个有效

DateTime.ParseExact("01-08-2012 15:36:25", "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss", null);

Answer 4

I am not sure if this helps but I used the exact code from this article and it worked for me because the DateTime.ParseExact(dat, "dd/MM/yyy HH:MM", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.None) did not work for me.

Read this I just posted it online: http://rochcass.wordpress.com/2012/08/27/error-string-was-not-recognized-as-a-valid-datetime-solution/#more-350