Convert a string to datetime format in asp .net

Question

I have a date time string "12-24-2013 15:19:29" which is in "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss". I want to convert this string to datetime. But the format should not change.ie, it should be the same "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss" format.

When I used following method,

DateTime dt2 = DateTime.ParseExact(date31strin, "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

the format is changed to "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss". I have tried some other method also, but still getting this same format.

Solution 1

First, you should be parsing the string to a DateTime and then format it to the second format using ToString() method.

//Convert your string to a DateTime
DateTime dt2 = DateTime.ParseExact(date31strin, 
                        "MM-dd-yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);


//If you want to change the format
string secondFormat = dt2.ToString("Second format string");

Note: Date is a Date and it does not have a format. If you need to convert the string to a DateTime, first line of code is enough

Solution 2

You are not changing the format. You are parsing a string into a DateTime object which does not have a format.

When you decide to present the DateTime, you can format it any way you wish.