Get Date from String

Question

Lets say I have one of following strings:

\"Hello, I\'m a String... This is a Stackoverflowquestion!! Here is a Date: 16.03.2013, 02:35 and yeah, plain text          


        

Answer 1

If your dates are always in that format, you could try using a regex to grab the date string and then use DateTime.ParseExact to get the result you want:

public DateTime? GetFirstDateFromString(string input)
{
    DateTime d;

    // Exclude strings with no matching substring
    foreach (Match m in Regex.Matches(input, @"[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]{2}\.[0-9]{4}"))
    {
        // Exclude matching substrings which aren't valid DateTimes
        if (DateTime.TryParseExact(match.Value, "dd.MM.yyyy", null, 
            DateTimeStyles.None, out d))
        {
            return d;
        }
    }
    return null;
}