DateTime.Parse throws FormatException regardless of CultureInfo

Question

My machine is configured with European date format: dd/MM/yyyy

When running any of the following lines:

DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM");
DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US"));
DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR"));
DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-GB"));

I'm getting

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

Why doesn't any culture info allow me to parse this date? I know in which culture the string was originally created (using DateTime.ToString()), but that's it, so I don't want to use ParseExact, unless there is some API to get the default format string per culture.

Your second line works fine for me (while first throws exception as it should). — Evk, May 15 '18 at 12:39
If you already have it as a DateTime, why are you parsing it to a string and then back to a DateTime? — Daxtron2, May 15 '18 at 12:39
@TJWolschon I have it as DateTime in another application which won't change its contract — Mugen, May 15 '18 at 12:40
@DanielA.White what with it? does it provide the actual format string? — Mugen, May 15 '18 at 12:41
And what is your original culture (`Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture`), is it "en-US"? — Evk, May 15 '18 at 12:44
@Evk, yes it is "en-US", for testing purposes, if I create the string on my machine there wouldn't be a parsing error — Mugen, May 15 '18 at 12:45
Then `DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", new CultureInfo("en-us", false));` should help. — Evk, May 15 '18 at 12:46

CodeCaster · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-15T12:53:06.463

This does work on a machine where the date pattern was left to default:

var culture = CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US");
Console.WriteLine(culture.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern);
Console.WriteLine(culture.DateTimeFormat.ShortTimePattern);
var date = DateTime.Parse("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", culture);
Console.WriteLine(date);

The default date pattern for en-US is "M/d/yyyy" and the time pattern is "h:mm tt".

This holds true unless you modify your system settings for the current culture, and that culture is en-US.

If you want to bypass customized settings, create a new CultureInfo("en-US", false).

apomene · Answer 2 · 2018-05-15T12:39:37.273

0

As you mention you are configured with dd/MM/yyyy

thus "11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM" is invalid. It should be:

"15/11/2017 12:00:00 AM"`

As a good practice, better use ParseExact, where you can specify the format of input string. Try:

DateTime.ParseExact("11/15/2017 12:00:00 AM", "MM/dd/yyyy", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-US"));

edited May 15 '18 at 12:39

answered May 15 '18 at 12:37

apomene

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Well isn't this why culture info is there to begin with? – Mugen May 15 '18 at 12:37
This is the format of my machine, if I change my machine to use `MM/dd/yyyy` no exception is thrown, why machine cannot be overriden? – Mugen May 15 '18 at 12:39

DateTime.Parse throws FormatException regardless of CultureInfo

2 Answers2