string represents date, and reformat it

Question

The following case: There is a string that has this format \"2012-02-25 07:53:04\"

But in the end, i rather want to end up with this format \"25-02-2012 07:53:04\"

Answer 1

Others have suggested using Parse - but I'd recommend using TryParseExact or ParseExact, also specifying the invariant culture unless you really want to use the current culture. For example:

string input = "2012-02-25 07:53:04";

DateTime dateTime;
if (!DateTime.TryParseExact(input, "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss",
                            CultureInfo.InvariantCulture,
                            DateTimeStyles.None,
                            out dateTime))
{
    Console.WriteLine("Couldn't parse value");
}
else
{
    string formatted = dateTime.ToString("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss",
                                         CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
    Console.WriteLine("Formatted to: {0}", formatted);
}

Alternatively using Noda Time:

string input = "2012-02-25 07:53:04";

// These can be private static readonly fields. They're thread-safe
var inputPattern = LocalDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantInfo("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
var outputPattern = LocalDateTimePattern.CreateWithInvariantInfo("dd-MM-yy HH:mm:ss");

var parsed = inputPattern.Parse(input);
if (!parsed.Success)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Couldn't parse value");
}
else
{
    string formatted = outputPattern.Format(parsed.Value);
    Console.WriteLine("Formatted to: {0}", formatted);
}