Convert string to specific DateTime format

Question

I\'ve been googling for a while now and for the life of me can\'t seem to find a solution. I thought this would be easy but it\'s taking too long and am turning to stackover

Answer 1

If you have a string, you must first guarantee that it can indeed be converted to a datetime.
So first, do so. Once you have a datetime, store it in a database as is, you do not need to be copncerned about format, (as others have said here).

and then, if you need to, reformat it to a different representation only if you need to display it somewhere..

string s = "21 June 2010 09:23:56";
DateTime dt;
if (DateTime.TryParse(s, out dt))
   // dit is a valid datetime, storeit or whatever
else
   throw ApplicationException(
        "{0} is not a valid datetime.", s);
//  --  and now you can redisplay dt any way you want -----
debug.Print(s.ToString("d MMM yyyy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("HH:mm:ss");
debug.Print(s.ToString("ffffdd, d MMM yy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("MMM d, yyyy");
debug.Print(s.ToString("HH:mm:ss ffffdd");

// etc...