Parsing datetime of the format "2013-Jan-31" throws error

Question

I have a datetime column in database.

DateTime end_date = DateTime.ParseExact("2013-Jan-31", "yyyy-MM-dd", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Why isn't this working?

Answer 1

Try like this;

DateTime a = DateTime.ParseExact("2013-Jan-31", "yyyy-MMM-dd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine (a);

Output:

31.01.2013

Look at from MSDN Custom Date and Time Format Strings

Answer 2

This is not working because MM would mean January to be 01. If this is the format of the date you're trying to parse, try the format "yyyy-MMM-dd".

Hope this helps

Answer 3

To use such a name of the month you need to take "MMM" so it will be

 myObject.end_date = DateTime.ParseExact("2013-Jan-31", "yyyy-MMM-dd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

Answer 4

MM represents a two-digit numerical month (such as "01").

MMM represents the abbreviated month (such as "Jan").

Which means that you need

myObject.end_date = DateTime.ParseExact("2013-Jan-31", "yyyy-MMM-dd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8kb3ddd4.aspx for a list of string format specifiers.