DateTime.TryParseExact Method

Definition

Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent. The format of the string representation must match a specified format exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Overloads

TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<Char>, ReadOnlySpan<Char>, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified span representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<Char>, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified char span of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent and returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

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. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

Remarks

Important

Eras in the Japanese calendars are based on the emperor's reign and are therefore expected to change. For example, May 1, 2019 marked the beginning of the Reiwa era in the JapaneseCalendar and JapaneseLunisolarCalendar. Such a change of era affects all applications that use these calendars. For more information and to determine whether your applications are affected, see Handling a new era in the Japanese calendar in .NET. For information on testing your applications on Windows systems to ensure their readiness for the era change, see Prepare your application for the Japanese era change. For features in .NET that support calendars with multiple eras and for best practices when working with calendars that support multiple eras, see Working with eras.

TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<Char>, ReadOnlySpan<Char>, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified span representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

public:
 static bool TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<char> s, ReadOnlySpan<char> format, IFormatProvider ^ provider, System::Globalization::DateTimeStyles style, [Runtime::InteropServices::Out] DateTime % result);
public static bool TryParseExact (ReadOnlySpan<char> s, ReadOnlySpan<char> format, IFormatProvider? provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
public static bool TryParseExact (ReadOnlySpan<char> s, ReadOnlySpan<char> format, IFormatProvider provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
static member TryParseExact : ReadOnlySpan<char> * ReadOnlySpan<char> * IFormatProvider * System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles * DateTime -> bool
Public Shared Function TryParseExact (s As ReadOnlySpan(Of Char), format As ReadOnlySpan(Of Char), provider As IFormatProvider, style As DateTimeStyles, ByRef result As DateTime) As Boolean

Parameters

s
ReadOnlySpan<Char>

A span containing the characters representing a date and time to convert.

format
ReadOnlySpan<Char>

The required format of s.

provider
IFormatProvider

An object that supplies culture-specific formatting information about s.

style
DateTimeStyles

A bitwise combination of one or more enumeration values that indicate the permitted format of s.

result
DateTime

When this method returns, contains the DateTime value equivalent to the date and time contained in s, if the conversion succeeded, or DateTime.MinValue if the conversion failed. The conversion fails if either the s or format parameter is null, is an empty string, or does not contain a date and time that correspond to the pattern specified in format. This parameter is passed uninitialized.

Returns

true if s was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Applies to

TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<Char>, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified char span of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent and returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

public:
 static bool TryParseExact(ReadOnlySpan<char> s, cli::array <System::String ^> ^ formats, IFormatProvider ^ provider, System::Globalization::DateTimeStyles style, [Runtime::InteropServices::Out] DateTime % result);
public static bool TryParseExact (ReadOnlySpan<char> s, string?[]? formats, IFormatProvider? provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
public static bool TryParseExact (ReadOnlySpan<char> s, string[] formats, IFormatProvider provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
static member TryParseExact : ReadOnlySpan<char> * string[] * IFormatProvider * System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles * DateTime -> bool
Public Shared Function TryParseExact (s As ReadOnlySpan(Of Char), formats As String(), provider As IFormatProvider, style As DateTimeStyles, ByRef result As DateTime) As Boolean

Parameters

s
ReadOnlySpan<Char>

The span containing the string to parse.

formats
String[]

An array of allowable formats of s.

provider
IFormatProvider

An object that supplies culture-specific formatting information about s.

style
DateTimeStyles

A bitwise combination of enumeration values that defines how to interpret the parsed date in relation to the current time zone or the current date. A typical value to specify is None.

result
DateTime

When this method returns, contains the DateTime value equivalent to the date and time contained in s, if the conversion succeeded, or DateTime.MinValue if the conversion failed. The conversion fails if the s parameter is null, is Empty, or does not contain a valid string representation of a date and time. This parameter is passed uninitialized.

Returns

true if the s parameter was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Applies to

TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format, culture-specific format information, and style. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

public:
 static bool TryParseExact(System::String ^ s, System::String ^ format, IFormatProvider ^ provider, System::Globalization::DateTimeStyles style, [Runtime::InteropServices::Out] DateTime % result);
public static bool TryParseExact (string s, string format, IFormatProvider provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
public static bool TryParseExact (string? s, string? format, IFormatProvider? provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
static member TryParseExact : string * string * IFormatProvider * System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles * DateTime -> bool
Public Shared Function TryParseExact (s As String, format As String, provider As IFormatProvider, style As DateTimeStyles, ByRef result As DateTime) As Boolean

Parameters

s
String

A string containing a date and time to convert.

format
String

The required format of s.

provider
IFormatProvider

An object that supplies culture-specific formatting information about s.

style
DateTimeStyles

A bitwise combination of one or more enumeration values that indicate the permitted format of s.

result
DateTime

When this method returns, contains the DateTime value equivalent to the date and time contained in s, if the conversion succeeded, or DateTime.MinValue if the conversion failed. The conversion fails if either the s or format parameter is null, is an empty string, or does not contain a date and time that correspond to the pattern specified in format. This parameter is passed uninitialized.

Returns

true if s was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Exceptions

styles is not a valid DateTimeStyles value.

-or-

styles contains an invalid combination of DateTimeStyles values (for example, both AssumeLocal and AssumeUniversal).

Examples

The following example demonstrates the DateTime.TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method. Note that the string " 5/01/2009 8:30 AM" cannot be parsed successfully when the styles parameter equals DateTimeStyles.None because leading spaces are not allowed by format. Additionally, the string "5/01/2009 09:00" cannot be parsed successfully with a format of "MM/dd/yyyyhh:mm" because the date string does not precede the month number with a leading zero, as format requires.

using System;
using System.Globalization;

public class Example
{
   public static void Main()
   {
      CultureInfo enUS = new CultureInfo("en-US");
      string dateString;
      DateTime dateValue;

      // Parse date with no style flags.
      dateString = " 5/01/2009 8:30 AM";
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS,
                                 DateTimeStyles.None, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Allow a leading space in the date string.
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS,
                                 DateTimeStyles.AllowLeadingWhite, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Use custom formats with M and MM.
      dateString = "5/01/2009 09:00";
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS,
                                 DateTimeStyles.None, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Allow a leading space in the date string.
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS,
                              DateTimeStyles.None, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Parse a string with time zone information.
      dateString = "05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00";
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS,
                              DateTimeStyles.None, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Allow a leading space in the date string.
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS,
                              DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      // Parse a string representing UTC.
      dateString = "2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z";
      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                                     DateTimeStyles.None, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);

      if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                                 DateTimeStyles.RoundtripKind, out dateValue))
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue,
                           dateValue.Kind);
      else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString);
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//    ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' is not in an acceptable format.
//    Converted ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' to 5/1/2009 8:30:00 AM (Unspecified).
//    Converted '5/01/2009 09:00' to 5/1/2009 9:00:00 AM (Unspecified).
//    '5/01/2009 09:00' is not in an acceptable format.
//    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 11:30:42 AM (Local).
//    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 6:30:42 PM (Utc).
//    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 9:11:20 AM (Local).
//    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 4:11:20 PM (Utc).
open System
open System.Globalization

[<EntryPoint>]
let main _ =
    let enUS = CultureInfo "en-US"

    // Parse date with no style flags.
    let dateString = " 5/01/2009 8:30 AM"
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS, DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."              
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Allow a leading space in the date string.
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS, DateTimeStyles.AllowLeadingWhite) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Use custom formats with M and MM.
    let dateString = "5/01/2009 09:00"
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS, DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Allow a leading space in the date string.
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS, DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Parse a string with time zone information.
    let dateString = "05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00"
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS, DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Allow a leading space in the date string.
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS, DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    // Parse a string representing UTC.
    let dateString = "2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z"
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.RoundtripKind) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue} ({dateValue.Kind})."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"'{dateString}' is not in an acceptable format."

    0

    // The example displays the following output:
    //    ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' is not in an acceptable format.
    //    Converted ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' to 5/1/2009 8:30:00 AM (Unspecified).
    //    Converted '5/01/2009 09:00' to 5/1/2009 9:00:00 AM (Unspecified).
    //    '5/01/2009 09:00' is not in an acceptable format.
    //    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 11:30:42 AM (Local).
    //    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 6:30:42 PM (Utc).
    //    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 9:11:20 AM (Local).
    //    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 4:11:20 PM (Utc).
Imports System.Globalization

Public Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim enUS As New CultureInfo("en-US") 
      Dim dateString As String
      Dim dateValue As Date
      
      ' Parse date with no style flags.
      dateString = " 5/01/2009 8:30 AM"
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.None, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
      ' Allow a leading space in the date string.
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "g", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.AllowLeadingWhite, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
      
      ' Use custom formats with M and MM.
      dateString = "5/01/2009 09:00"
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "M/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.None, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
      ' Allow a leading space in the date string.
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.None, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If

      ' Parse a string with time zone information.
      dateString = "05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00" 
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.None, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
      ' Allow a leading space in the date string.
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt zzz", enUS, _
                            DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
           
      ' Parse a string representing UTC.
      dateString = "2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z"
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, _
                                     DateTimeStyles.None, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
      
      If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, "o", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, _
                            DateTimeStyles.RoundtripKind, dateValue) Then
         Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1} ({2}).", dateString, dateValue, _
                           dateValue.Kind)
      Else
         Console.WriteLine("'{0}' is not in an acceptable format.", dateString)
      End If
   End Sub
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'    ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' is not in an acceptable format.
'    Converted ' 5/01/2009 8:30 AM' to 5/1/2009 8:30:00 AM (Unspecified).
'    Converted '5/01/2009 09:00' to 5/1/2009 9:00:00 AM (Unspecified).
'    '5/01/2009 09:00' is not in an acceptable format.
'    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 11:30:42 AM (Local).
'    Converted '05/01/2009 01:30:42 PM -05:00' to 5/1/2009 6:30:42 PM (Utc).
'    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 9:11:20 AM (Local).
'    Converted '2008-06-11T16:11:20.0904778Z' to 6/11/2008 4:11:20 PM (Utc).

Remarks

The DateTime.TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method parses the string representation of a date, which must be in the format defined by the format parameter. It is similar to the DateTime.ParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) method, except that the TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method does not throw an exception if the conversion fails.

The s parameter contains the date and time to parse and must be in a format defined by the format parameter. If date, time, and time zone elements are present in s, they must also appear in the order specified by format. If format defines a date with no time element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value has a time of midnight (00:00:00). If format defines a time with no date element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value by default has a date of DateTime.Now.Date, or it has a date of DateTime.MinValue.Date if styles includes the DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault flag. The style parameter determines whether the s parameter can contain leading, inner, or trailing white space characters.

If s contains no time zone information, the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is DateTimeKind.Unspecified. This behavior can be changed by using the DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal flag, which returns a DateTime value whose Kind property is DateTimeKind.Local, or by using the DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal and DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flags, which returns a DateTime value whose Kind property is DateTimeKind.Utc. If s contains time zone information, the time is converted to local time, if necessary, and the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Local. This behavior can be changed by using the DateTimeStyles.RoundtripKind flag to not convert Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to a local time and set the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc.

The format parameter contains a pattern that corresponds to the expected format of the s parameter. The pattern in the format parameter consists of one or more custom format specifiers from the Custom Date and Time Format Strings table, or a single standard format specifier, which identifies a predefined pattern, from the Standard Date and Time Format Strings table.

If you do not use date or time separators in a custom format pattern, use the invariant culture for the provider parameter and the widest form of each custom format specifier. For example, if you want to specify hours in the pattern, specify the wider form, "HH", instead of the narrower form, "H".

Note

Rather than requiring that s conform to a single format for the parse operation to succeed, you can call the DateTime.TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method and specify multiple permitted formats. This makes the parse operation more likely to succeed.

The particular date and time symbols and strings (such as the names of the days of the week in a particular language) used in s are defined by the provider parameter, as is the precise format of s if format is a standard format specifier string. The provider parameter can be any of the following:

If provider is null, the CultureInfo object that corresponds to the current culture is used.

The styles parameter includes one or more members of the DateTimeStyles enumeration that determine whether and where white space not defined by format can appear in s and that control the precise behavior of the parse operation. The following table describes how each member of the DateTimeStyles enumeration affects the operation of the TryParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method.

DateTimeStyles member Description
AdjustToUniversal Parses s and, if necessary, converts it to UTC. If s includes a time zone offset, or if s contains no time zone information but styles includes the DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal flag, the method parses the string, calls ToUniversalTime to convert the returned DateTime value to UTC, and sets the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc. If s indicates that it represents UTC, or if s does not contain time zone information but styles includes the DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal flag, the method parses the string, performs no time zone conversion on the returned DateTime value, and sets the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc. In all other cases, the flag has no effect.
AllowInnerWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear between any individual date or time element.
AllowLeadingWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear at the beginning of s.
AllowTrailingWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear at the end of s.
AllowWhiteSpaces Specifies that s may contain leading, inner, and trailing white spaces not defined by format.
AssumeLocal Specifies that if s lacks any time zone information, it is assumed to represent a local time. Unless the DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flag is present, the Kind property of the returned DateTime value is set to DateTimeKind.Local.
AssumeUniversal Specifies that if s lacks any time zone information, it is assumed to represent UTC. Unless the DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flag is present, the method converts the returned DateTime value from UTC to local time and sets its Kind property to DateTimeKind.Local.
NoCurrentDateDefault If s contains time without date information, the date of the return value is set to DateTime.MinValue.Date.
None The s parameter is parsed using default values. No white space other than that present in format is allowed. If s lacks a date component, the date of the returned DateTime value is set to 1/1/0001. If s contains no time zone information, the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Unspecified. If time zone information is present in s, the time is converted to local time and the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Local.
RoundtripKind For strings that contain time zone information, tries to prevent the conversion to a DateTime value with its Kind property set to DateTimeKind.Local. This flag primarily prevents the conversion of UTC times to local times.

Notes to Callers

In the .NET Framework 4, the TryParseExact method returns false if the string to be parsed contains an hour component and an AM/PM designator that are not in agreement. In the .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions, the AM/PM designator is ignored.

See also

Applies to

TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime)

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. The method returns a value that indicates whether the conversion succeeded.

public:
 static bool TryParseExact(System::String ^ s, cli::array <System::String ^> ^ formats, IFormatProvider ^ provider, System::Globalization::DateTimeStyles style, [Runtime::InteropServices::Out] DateTime % result);
public static bool TryParseExact (string s, string[] formats, IFormatProvider provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
public static bool TryParseExact (string? s, string?[]? formats, IFormatProvider? provider, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles style, out DateTime result);
static member TryParseExact : string * string[] * IFormatProvider * System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles * DateTime -> bool
Public Shared Function TryParseExact (s As String, formats As String(), provider As IFormatProvider, style As DateTimeStyles, ByRef result As DateTime) As Boolean

Parameters

s
String

A string that contains a date and time to convert.

formats
String[]

An array of allowable formats of s.

provider
IFormatProvider

An object that supplies culture-specific format information about s.

style
DateTimeStyles

A bitwise combination of enumeration values that indicates the permitted format of s. A typical value to specify is None.

result
DateTime

When this method returns, contains the DateTime value equivalent to the date and time contained in s, if the conversion succeeded, or DateTime.MinValue if the conversion failed. The conversion fails if s or formats is null, s or an element of formats is an empty string, or the format of s is not exactly as specified by at least one of the format patterns in formats. This parameter is passed uninitialized.

Returns

true if the s parameter was converted successfully; otherwise, false.

Exceptions

styles is not a valid DateTimeStyles value.

-or-

styles contains an invalid combination of DateTimeStyles values (for example, both AssumeLocal and AssumeUniversal).

Examples

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

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 = {"5/1/2009 6:32 PM", "05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM",
                              "5/1/2009 6:32:00", "05/01/2009 06:32",
                              "05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM", "05/01/2009 06:32:00"};
      DateTime dateValue;

      foreach (string dateString in dateStrings)
      {
         if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, formats,
                                    new CultureInfo("en-US"),
                                    DateTimeStyles.None,
                                    out dateValue))
            Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}.", dateString, dateValue);
         else
            Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}' to a date.", dateString);
      }
   }
}
// The example displays the following output:
//       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:05 PM.
//       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
open System
open System.Globalization

let 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" |]

let dateStrings = 
    [ "5/1/2009 6:32 PM"; "05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM"
      "5/1/2009 6:32:00"; "05/01/2009 06:32"
      "05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM"; "05/01/2009 06:32:00" ]

for dateString in dateStrings do
    match DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, formats, CultureInfo "en-US", DateTimeStyles.None) with
    | true, dateValue ->
        printfn $"Converted '{dateString}' to {dateValue}."
    | _ ->
        printfn $"Unable to convert '{dateString}' to a date."


// The example displays the following output:
//       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:05 PM.
//       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
//       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
Imports System.Globalization

Public Module Example
   Public Sub Main()
      Dim formats() As String = {"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"}
      Dim dateStrings() As String = {"5/1/2009 6:32 PM", "05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM", _
                                     "5/1/2009 6:32:00", "05/01/2009 06:32", _
                                     "05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM", "05/01/2009 06:32:00"} 

      Dim dateValue As DateTime
      
      For Each dateString As String In dateStrings
         If Date.TryParseExact(dateString, formats, _
                               New CultureInfo("en-US"), _
                               DateTimeStyles.None, _
                               dateValue) Then
            Console.WriteLine("Converted '{0}' to {1}.", dateString, dateValue)
         Else
            Console.WriteLine("Unable to convert '{0}' to a date.", dateString)
         End If                                               
      Next
   End Sub   
End Module
' The example displays the following output:
'       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
'       Converted '05/01/2009 6:32:05 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:05 PM.
'       Converted '5/1/2009 6:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
'       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.
'       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00 PM' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 PM.
'       Converted '05/01/2009 06:32:00' to 5/1/2009 6:32:00 AM.

Remarks

The DateTime.TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method parses the string representation of a date that matches any one of the patterns assigned to the formats parameter. It is like the DateTime.ParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles) method, except the TryParseExact method does not throw an exception if the conversion fails.

The s parameter contains the date and time to parse. If the s parameter contains only a time and no date, the current date is used unless the style parameter includes the DateTimeStyles.NoCurrentDateDefault flag, in which case the default date (DateTime.Date.MinValue) is used. If the s parameter contains only a date and no time, midnight (00:00:00) is used. The style parameter also determines whether the s parameter can contain leading, inner, or trailing white space characters other than those permitted by one of the format strings in formats.

If s contains no time zone information, the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is DateTimeKind.Unspecified. This behavior can be changed by using the DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal flag, which returns a DateTime value whose Kind property is DateTimeKind.Local, or by using the DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal and DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flags, which returns a DateTime value whose Kind property is DateTimeKind.Utc. If s contains time zone information, the time is converted to local time, if necessary, and the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Local. This behavior can be changed by using the DateTimeStyles.RoundtripKind flag to not convert Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to a local time and set the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc.

The formats parameter contains an array of patterns, one of which s must match exactly if the parse operation is to succeed. The patterns in the formats parameter consist of one or more custom format specifiers from the Custom Date and Time Format Strings table, or a single standard format specifier, which identifies a predefined pattern, from the Standard Date and Time Format Strings table.

If you do not use date or time separators in a custom format pattern, use the invariant culture for the provider parameter and the widest form of each custom format specifier. For example, if you want to specify hours in the pattern, specify the wider form, "HH", instead of the narrower form, "H".

The particular date and time symbols and strings (such as the names of the days of the week in a particular language) used in s are defined by the provider parameter, as is the precise format of s if format is a standard format specifier string. The provider parameter can be any of the following:

If provider is null, the CultureInfo object that corresponds to the current culture is used.

The styles parameter includes one or more members of the DateTimeStyles enumeration that determine whether and where white space not defined by format can appear in s and that control the precise behavior of the parse operation. The following table describes how each member of the DateTimeStyles enumeration affects the operation of the TryParseExact(String, String[], IFormatProvider, DateTimeStyles, DateTime) method.

DateTimeStyles member Description
AdjustToUniversal Parses s and, if necessary, converts it to UTC. If s includes a time zone offset, or if s contains no time zone information but styles includes the DateTimeStyles.AssumeLocal flag, the method parses the string, calls ToUniversalTime to convert the returned DateTime value to UTC, and sets the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc. If s indicates that it represents UTC, or if s does not contain time zone information but styles includes the DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal flag, the method parses the string, performs no time zone conversion on the returned DateTime value, and sets the Kind property to DateTimeKind.Utc. In all other cases, the flag has no effect.
AllowInnerWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear between any individual date or time element.
AllowLeadingWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear at the beginning of s.
AllowTrailingWhite Specifies that white space not defined by format can appear at the end of s.
AllowWhiteSpaces Specifies that s may contain leading, inner, and trailing white spaces not defined by format.
AssumeLocal Specifies that if s lacks any time zone information, it is assumed to represent a local time. Unless the DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flag is present, the Kind property of the returned DateTime value is set to DateTimeKind.Local.
AssumeUniversal Specifies that if s lacks any time zone information, it is assumed to represent UTC. Unless the DateTimeStyles.AdjustToUniversal flag is present, the method converts the returned DateTime value from UTC to local time and sets its Kind property to DateTimeKind.Local.
NoCurrentDateDefault If s contains time without date information, the date of the return value is set to DateTime.MinValue.Date.
None The s parameter is parsed using default values. No white space other than that present in format is allowed. If s lacks a date component, the date of the returned DateTime value is set to 1/1/0001. If s contains no time zone information, the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Unspecified. If time zone information is present in s, the time is converted to local time and the Kind property of the returned DateTime object is set to DateTimeKind.Local.
RoundtripKind For strings that contain time zone information, tries to prevent the conversion to a DateTime value with its Kind property set to DateTimeKind.Local. This flag primarily prevents the conversion of UTC times to local times.

Notes to Callers

In the .NET Framework 4, the TryParseExact method returns false if the string to be parsed contains an hour component and an AM/PM designator that are not in agreement. In the .NET Framework 3.5 and earlier versions, the AM/PM designator is ignored.

See also

Applies to