DateTime.ParseExact Problem

[EricaStar]

Can someone please tell me what I'm doing wrong:

I have this string: 11/24/2006 03:30

That I am trying to put in the following format: 2006-11-24 03:30 AM

I tried using Parse Exact:

datetime.parseExact('11-24-2006 03:30','yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm tt*',CultureInfo)

That generates the following error:

System.FormatException: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong. Is the string format wrong?

[nikkiH]

ParseExact means the string is already IN that format and you want a date out of it. If you want to convert a string that is in one format into a different format, you make a date first, then format that date.

i.e. (C#)

string origDateString = "11-24-2006 03:30";
string desiredFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm tt*";

DateTime datetime = DateTime.Parse(origDateString);
string convertedDateString = datetime.toString(desiredFormat);


You could shorten that up more and pass culture arguments etc. if you had a mind to, but you get the idea. I also generally use TryParse when playing with date parsing, but that's a 2.0 thing so it won't work with 1.1.

[EricaStar]

Thanks Nikki,

I think I'm going in the right direction at least now. The only problem now is that the date is coming back like this: 0000-00-00 00:00. Eventhough, the original string is 2006-11-24 23:59.

[nikkiH]

Can you post the code?

[EricaStar]

I figured out the problem. It wasn't really with the code, there was a problem in Mysql once I tried inserting the value. The format had to be in yyyy-mm-dd H:mm (24 hour clock) and there was a space between the time and the AM and PM (which really didn't matter since MySql stripped the AM/PM anyway) which was causing the initial error.