Strange error when parsing string to date?

Question

When I try to parse date like this:

DateTime t1 = DateTime.ParseExact(\"August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM\", \"MMMM dd, yyyy, hh:mm:ss tt\", System.Globalization.         


        

Answer 1

Your second string has hidden characters.

Run this:

string s1 = "August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM";
string s2 = "‎August ‎11, ‎2013, ‏‎11:00:00 PM";

Console.WriteLine(s1.Length); // 28
Console.WriteLine(s2.Length); // 33

Specifically, as char arrays, the second one is this:

s2.ToCharArray();
{char[33]}
[0]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[1]: 65 'A'
[2]: 117 'u'
[3]: 103 'g'
[4]: 117 'u'
[5]: 115 's'
[6]: 116 't'
[7]: 32 ' '
[8]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[9]: 49 '1'
[10]: 49 '1'
[11]: 44 ','
[12]: 32 ' '
[13]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[14]: 50 '2'
[15]: 48 '0'
[16]: 49 '1'
[17]: 51 '3'
[18]: 44 ','
[19]: 32 ' '
[20]: 8207 '‏' // ????
[21]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[22]: 49 '1'
[23]: 49 '1'
[24]: 58 ':'
[25]: 48 '0'
[26]: 48 '0'
[27]: 58 ':'
[28]: 48 '0'
[29]: 48 '0'
[30]: 32 ' '
[31]: 80 'P'
[32]: 77 'M'