Why does this DateTime parse always fail?

Question

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong here? The Assert.IsTrue(parses) always fails.

    [TestMethod]
    public void Can_Parse_To_DateTime()
    {
        DateTime expected = new DateTime(2011, 10, 19, 16, 01, 59);
        DateTime actual;

        string value = "Wed Oct 19 16:01:59 PDT 2011";
        string  mask = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss xxx YYYY";

        bool parses = DateTime.TryParseExact(value, mask, 
                                             CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                             DateTimeStyles.None, 
                                             out actual);

        Assert.IsTrue(parses);
        Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
    }

I have also tried it thus, with the same result:

    [TestMethod]
    public void parsing()
    {
        DateTime expected = new DateTime(2011, 10, 19, 16, 01, 59);
        DateTime actual;

        string value = "Wed Oct 19 16:01:59 PDT 2011";
        string  mask = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss YYYY"; // note removal of "xxx "

        value = value.Remove(20, 4);  // removal of the "PDT "
        bool parses = DateTime.TryParseExact(value, mask, 
                                             CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, 
                                             DateTimeStyles.None, 
                                             out actual);

        Assert.IsTrue(parses);
        Assert.AreEqual(expected, actual);
    }

The year should be "yyyy" (lower case), but I'm not sure there's any format string that will interpret "PDT". — Matt Hamilton, Oct 20 '11 at 01:00
@MattHamilton - that's the answer! changed it and it works. Post as an answer and I'll accept it. — Scott Baker, Oct 20 '11 at 01:04

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 20 '11 at 01:08

3

As noted by Matt Hamilton, yyyy must be lowercase. And xxx is totally invalid. You can always test your format string using reverse method DateTime.ToString(format,CultureInfo.InvariantCulture).

answered Oct 20 '11 at 01:08

Al Kepp

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According to this previous question you can replace timezone string with timezone offset and it will work - http://stackoverflow.com/questions/241789/parse-datetime-with-timezone-of-form-pst-cest-utc-etc – Paige Cook Oct 20 '11 at 01:12
Really like that you gave the option to try a reverse check. It hadn't occurred to me when I had similar pains. Still not a total fix for the OP, but a step in the right direction. – Tim Meers Oct 20 '11 at 01:37

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '11 at 01:30

1

 string mask = "ddd MMM dd HH:mm:ss PDT yyyy";

answered Oct 20 '11 at 01:30

ojlovecd

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Why does this DateTime parse always fail?

2 Answers2