A string
is not a DateTime
and a DateTime
not a String
. So you might be able to parse a string to a date but you cannot use the string variable for the DateTime and vice-versa. You need two variables:
string startDateInput = Console.ReadLine();
DateTime startDate = DateTime.Parse( startDateInput );
Since this could fail if the input string is not a valid date you should use TryParse
:
DateTime startDate;
bool validDate = DateTime.TryParse(startDateInput, out startDate);
if(validDate)
Console.Write("Valid date: " + startDate.ToLongDateString());