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DateTime::ParseExact Method (String, String, IFormatProvider)

Updated: July 2008

Converts the specified string representation of a date and time to its DateTime equivalent using the specified format and culture-specific format information. The format of the string representation must match the specified format exactly.

Namespace:  System
Assembly:  mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)

public:
static DateTime ParseExact(
	String^ s, 
	String^ format, 
	IFormatProvider^ provider
)

Parameters

s
Type: System::String

A string that contains a date and time to convert.

format
Type: System::String

A format specifier that defines the required format of s.

provider
Type: System::IFormatProvider

An object that supplies culture-specific format information about s.

Return Value

Type: System::DateTime
A DateTime equivalent to the date and time contained in s as specified by format and provider.

ExceptionCondition
ArgumentNullException

s or format is nullptr.

FormatException

s or format is an empty string.

-or-

s does not contain a date and time that corresponds to the pattern specified in format.

The DateTime::ParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider) method parses the string representation of a date, which must be in the format defined by the format parameter. It also requires that the <Date> and <Time> elements of the string representation of a date and time appear in the order specified by format, and that s have no white space other than that permitted by format. If format defines a date with no time element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value has a time of midnight (00:00:00). If format defines a time with no date element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value has a date of DateTime.Now.Date.

If s does not represent a time in a particular time zone and the parse operation succeeds, the Kind property of the returned DateTime value is DateTimeKind::Unspecified. If s does represent the time in a particular time zone and format allows time zone information to be present (for example, if format is equal to the "o", "r", or "u" standard format specifier, or if it contains the "z", "zz", or "zzz" custom format specifier), the Kind property of the returned DateTime value is DateTimeKind::Local.

The format parameter is a string that contains either a single standard format specifier, or one or more custom format specifiers that define the required format of s. For details about valid formatting codes, see Standard Date and Time Format Strings or Custom Date and Time Format Strings.

NoteNote:

If format is a custom format pattern that does not include date or time separators (such as "yyyyMMdd HHmm"), use the invariant culture for the provider parameter and the widest form of each custom format specifier. For example, if you want to specify hours in the format pattern, specify the wider form, "HH", instead of the narrower form, "H".

The particular date and time symbols and strings (such as names of the days of the week in a particular language) used in s are defined by the provider parameter, as is the precise format of s if format is a standard format specifier string. The provider parameter can be any of the following:

If provider is nullptr, the CultureInfo object that corresponds to the current culture is used.

The following example demonstrates the ParseExact method.

No code example is currently available or this language may not be supported.

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, Windows XP Starter Edition, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2000 SP4, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows Mobile for Smartphone, Windows Mobile for Pocket PC, Xbox 360, Zune

The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform. For a list of the supported versions, see .NET Framework System Requirements.

.NET Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 3.0, 2.0, 1.1, 1.0

.NET Compact Framework

Supported in: 3.5, 2.0, 1.0

XNA Framework

Supported in: 3.0, 2.0, 1.0

Date

History

Reason

July 2008

Added detail on method behavior.

Information enhancement.

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