c# - How to validate DateTime format?

Question

I am suppose to let the user enter a DateTime format, but I need to validate it to check if it is acceptable. The user might enter "yyyy-MM-dd" and it would be fine, but they can also enter "MM/yyyyMM/ddd" or any other combination. Is there a way to validate this?

Answer 1

Are you looking for something like this?

DateTime expectedDate;
if (!DateTime.TryParse("07/27/2012", out expectedDate))
{
    Console.Write("Luke I am not your datetime.... NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!");
}

If your user knows the exact format(s) needed...

string[] formats = { "MM/dd/yyyy", "M/d/yyyy", "M/dd/yyyy", "MM/d/yyyy" };
DateTime expectedDate;
if (!DateTime.TryParseExact("07/27/2012", formats, new CultureInfo("en-US"), 
                            DateTimeStyles.None, out expectedDate))
{
    Console.Write("Thank you Mario, but the DateTime is in another format.");
}