Converting string format to datetime in mm/dd/yyyy

You are looking for the DateTime.Parse() method (MSDN Article)

So you can do:

var dateTime = DateTime.Parse("01/01/2001");

Which will give you a DateTime typed object.

If you need to specify which date format you want to use, you would use DateTime.ParseExact (MSDN Article)

Which you would use in a situation like this (Where you are using a British style date format):

string[] formats= { "dd/MM/yyyy" }
var dateTime = DateTime.ParseExact("01/01/2001", formats, new CultureInfo("en-US"), DateTimeStyles.None);

You need an uppercase M for the month part.

string strDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");

Lowercase m is for outputting (and parsing) a minute (such as h:mm).

e.g. a full date time string might look like this:

string strDate = DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy h:mm");

Notice the uppercase/lowercase mM difference.

Also if you will always deal with the same datetime format string, you can make it easier by writing them as C# extension methods.

public static class DateTimeMyFormatExtensions
{
  public static string ToMyFormatString(this DateTime dt)
  {
    return dt.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy");
  }
}

public static class StringMyDateTimeFormatExtension
{
  public static DateTime ParseMyFormatDateTime(this string s)
  {
    var culture = System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;
    return DateTime.ParseExact(s, "MM/dd/yyyy", culture);
  }
}

EXAMPLE: Translating between DateTime/string

DateTime now = DateTime.Now;

string strNow = now.ToMyFormatString();
DateTime nowAgain = strNow.ParseMyFormatDateTime();

Note that there is NO way to store a custom DateTime format information to use as default as in .NET most string formatting depends on the currently set culture, i.e.

System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.

The only easy way you can do is to roll a custom extension method.

Also, the other easy way would be to use a different "container" or "wrapper" class for your DateTime, i.e. some special class with explicit operator defined that automatically translates to and from DateTime/string. But that is dangerous territory.

Solution

DateTime.Now.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

Converting string format to datetime in mm/dd/yyyy

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