How to convert string with unusual format into datetime

Question

I\'m using .NET 3.5 and I have a date that comes in as string in the following format:

Tue Jan 20 20:47:43 GMT 2009

First questi

Answer 1

DateTime dt;
if(DateTime.TryParse("Tue Jan 20 20:47:43 GMT 2009", out dt)){
   /* Yay.. it's valid */
}

You can also use TryParseExact where you can specify the format of your DateTime

Using TryparseExact

const string FORMAT = "ffffd MMM dd HH:mm:ss \"GMT\" yyyy";
if (DateTime.TryParseExact("Tue Jan 20 20:47:43 GMT 2009", FORMAT, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, System.Globalization.DateTimeStyles.AssumeUniversal, out dt)) {
        /* is valid */
 }    

I believe that should work. Not sure if it will try to parse out the GMT though.