C# DateTime ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) Array

Description

DateTime ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified array of formats, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match at least one of the specified formats exactly or an exception is thrown.

Syntax

DateTime.ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) has the following syntax.

public static DateTime ParseExact(
  string s,/*from   ww  w.  ja v  a 2s  . c o m*/
  string[] formats,
  IFormatProvider provider,
  DateTimeStyles style
)

Parameters

DateTime.ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) has the following parameters.

• s - A string that contains a date and time to convert.
• formats - An array of allowable formats of s. For more information, see the Remarks section.
• provider - An object that supplies culture-specific format information about s.
• style - A bitwise combination of enumeration values that indicates the permitted format of s. A typical value to specify is None.

Returns

DateTime.ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) method returns An object that is equivalent to the date and time contained in s, as specified by formats, provider, and style.

Example

The following example uses the DateTime.ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) method to ensure that a string in a number of possible formats can be successfully parsed .

//from   w  w  w. j a  v  a2  s .c  om
using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      string[] formats= {"M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss tt", "M/d/yyyy h:mm tt", 
                         "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss", "M/d/yyyy h:mm:ss", 
                         "M/d/yyyy hh:mm tt", "M/d/yyyy hh tt", 
                         "M/d/yyyy h:mm", "M/d/yyyy h:mm", 
                         "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm", "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm"};
      string[] dateStrings = {"5/1/2014 6:32 PM", "05/01/2014 6:32:05 PM", 
                              "5/1/2014 6:32:00", "05/01/2014 06:32", 
                              "05/01/2014 06:32:00 PM", "05/01/2014 06:32:00"}; 
      DateTime dateValue;

      foreach (string dateString in dateStrings)
      {
         try {
            dateValue = DateTime.ParseExact(dateString, formats, 
                                            new CultureInfo("en-US"), 
                                            DateTimeStyles.None);
            Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}.", dateString, dateValue);
         }
         catch (FormatException) {
            Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}' to a date.", dateString);
         }                                               
      }
   }
}

The code above generates the following result.