VB.NET - DateTime.Parse: Convert String to DateTime

DateTime.Parse. A String contains a date or time. Characters indicate the month, day and year. We want to convert it into a DateTime instance in VB.NET.

Function details. The DateTime.Parse Function handles many different formats of String dates. Many formats from the Internet can be parsed. The function is flexible and useful.

First example. To begin, we use the DateTime.Parse Function. You must pass a string value as its argument. You can assign a DateTime to its result.

Here You can see in this example that the year, month, and day were correctly parsed.

However The time was left at zero (equivalent to 12 AM), because none was specified. When you don't specify a time it is left at 12 AM.

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Dim value As String = "2000-02-02"
        Dim time As DateTime = DateTime.Parse(value)
        Console.WriteLine(time)
    End Sub
End Module
2/2/2000 12:00:00 AM

TryParse example. If a date format might be invalid, we should use the DateTime.TryParse function in an If-Statement. If the format is valid, we can use the parsed value.

DateTime.TryParse

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        Dim value As String = "invalid"
        Dim time As DateTime
        If DateTime.TryParse(value, time) Then
            ' Use time if valid.
        End If
        Console.WriteLine("DONE")
    End Sub
End Module
DONE

Formats. Next, we examine the DateTime.Parse function using a variety of input formats. For completeness, I searched the Internet to find different DateTime format strings.

Note This function appeared to work correctly on all of the input strings, which means it is fairly flexible.

Module Module1
    Sub Main()
        ' Simple slash format
        Dim time As DateTime = DateTime.Parse("1/1/2000")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' HTTP header
        time = DateTime.Parse("Fri, 27 Feb 2009 03:11:21 GMT")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From w3.org
        time = DateTime.Parse("2009/02/26 18:37:58")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From nytimes.com
        time = DateTime.Parse("Thursday, February 26, 2009")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From dotnetperls.com
        time = DateTime.Parse("February 26, 2009")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From ISO Standard 8601 for Dates
        time = DateTime.Parse("2002-02-10")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From Windows file system Created/Modified
        time = DateTime.Parse("2/21/2009 10:35 PM")
        Console.WriteLine(time)

        ' From Windows Date and Time panel
        time = DateTime.Parse("8:04:00 PM")
        Console.WriteLine(time)
    End Sub
End Module1/1/2000 12:00:00 AM
2/26/2009 8:11:21 PM
2/26/2009 6:37:58 PM
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM
2/10/2002 12:00:00 AM
2/21/2009 10:35:00 PM
6/2/2010 8:04:00 PM

A summary. The DateTime.Parse function in the VB.NET language is useful in many programs where you want to convert a string into a DateTime instance. It works on many formats.

Some final notes. The DateTime type provides more options for programmatic use. The string type is more useful for input and output such as writing to files.