VB.NET: Convert Date string and Time string to DateTime value : date, convert, string, time, datetime

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08.04.2007 at 05:03PM PDT, ID: 22742341

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6.6

VB.NET: Convert Date string and Time string to DateTime value

Zones: SQL Server 2005, Microsoft Visual Basic.Net, Visual Studio .NET 2005

Tags: date, convert, string, time, datetime

I have a web app developed in Visual Studio (vb.net) that ties to a SQL Server database. One of the fields in the database is a datetime field. The form has two text boxes, txtDate, and txtTime. txtDate takes a regular expression along standard m/d/yyyy format (e.g., "1/1/2007", "12/13/2007"). txtTime takes a regular expression along standard time notation (e.g., "5:00 PM", "12:00 PM", "4:21 PM").

I need to convert these two separate strings into a datetime object so I can store it in the database.

I know this sounds simple, but I've been having a ton of problems with dates, times, datetime, and timespans. It's not quite intuitive.

Any help?

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Question Stats

Zone: Microsoft

Question Asked By: kmoloney

Solution Provided By: Arthur_Wood

Participating Experts: 4

Solution Grade: A

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08.04.2007 at 05:45PM PDT, ID: 19632490

Rank: Guru

Arthur_Wood:

Dim NewDateTime as DateTime =cType(txtDate.Text & " " & txtTime.Text, DateTime)

txtMyDateTime = NewDateTime

The additional " " is important.

AW

Accepted Solution

08.04.2007 at 05:53PM PDT, ID: 19632501

Rank: Master

drichards:

That is correct. Same thing but a bit more .NET-ish and less VB-ish:

Dim dt As DateTime = DateTime.Parse(txtDate.Text + " " + txtTime.Text)

08.04.2007 at 05:58PM PDT, ID: 19632511

Rank: Guru

Arthur_Wood:

6 to one, half dozen to the other.

The two are functionally identical.

You pays your money, and you takes your choice.

Can you say split the points?? LOL ;-}

AW

08.04.2007 at 06:20PM PDT, ID: 19632560

Rank: Genius

Idle_Mind:

Just a minor note...

With VB.Net 2005, I would use one of the DateTime.TryParse() methods, instead of DateTime.Parse(), as it allows for easier code to be written:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ch92fbc1.aspx

08.04.2007 at 07:31PM PDT, ID: 19632743

Rank: Master

drichards:

Yes, TryParse is useful if your input format is not validated and you expect failures. Parse defers to TryParse internally anyway and throws an exception if TryParse returns false.

And no, I don't expect any point splitting - it was just a reaction to seeing a lot of questions about converting VB to C#. It's an easier process if you stick to the framework ways of doing things rather than using VB-specific syntax. As AW points out, the net result is the same. In fact, the CType statement ultimately calls DateTie.TryParse as well. Everything ends up in the same happy place.

08.04.2007 at 11:08PM PDT, ID: 19633333

kmoloney:

will this work with the regular expressions for a "DATE" and a "TIME":

DATE regex:

(0?[1-9]|1[012])[- /.](0?[1-9]|[12][0-9]|3[01])[- /.](19|20)?\d\d

TIME regex:

([0-2])?\d:\d\d [AP]M

I guess I'll try it and find out.

BTW, its up to me if I want to split points... :-)

08.05.2007 at 12:12AM PDT, ID: 19633446

kmoloney:

Error received:

Conversion from string "" to type double is not valid.

08.05.2007 at 12:17AM PDT, ID: 19633456

kmoloney:

Here's my code (if they leave the time field blank, it's assumed to be 5:00 PM)

Private Sub DetermineDateTimeFormat(ByRef strBody As String)
'// DETERMINE THE DATE FORMAT TO BE PRESENT IN THE LETTER
If Me.txtTermTime.Text = "" Then
t.TerminationDateTime = CType(Me.txtTermDate.Text & " " & "5:00 PM", System.DateTime)
Else
t.TerminationDateTime = CType(Me.txtTermDate.Text & " " * Me.txtTermTime.Text, System.DateTime)

End If
End Sub

08.05.2007 at 12:24AM PDT, ID: 19633474

Rank: Master

drichards:

You've got a '*' where a '&' shoudl be in the else clause:

t.TerminationDateTime = CType(Me.txtTermDate.Text & " " * <--- here
Me.txtTermTime.Text, System.DateTime)

Assisted Solution

08.05.2007 at 12:42AM PDT, ID: 19633503

Rank: Master

drichards:

Not sure what you're doing with the regex, but they are somewhat oversimplified. The time ones are not too bad to improve:

12 hour - probably need some variants on the am/pm:
^(?:[0]?[0-9]|1[0-2]):[0-5][0-9][ap]m$

24 hour with two digit hour:
^(?:[0-1][0-9]|[2][0-3]):[0-5][0-9]$

To get the dates correct with the number of days and such is much more complicated. Your simple expressions will validate the formats but won't tell you if the values are legal.

Assisted Solution

08.07.2007 at 04:13PM PDT, ID: 19650332

kmoloney:

I liked Arthur Wood's solution the best, as IS more VB-ish.

Drichards offered a perfectly valid alternative, and pointed out the typo - something that I should have caught quickly - had I been looking in the write place to begin with. Also, his suggestion re the regex'es, while not really a part of the question, will be useful. I'll probably be using the "IsDate" function to test for it to be a valid date AFTER it matches the regex -- I'm not a regex master by any means, and I'm not planning on trying to come up with one that takes the different days of the month or leap years into accout.

Thanks, Guys.

Kevin

P.S. - it ends up like the points split after all! :-)

rheitzman

12.06.2007 at 01:42PM PST, ID: 20423594

I always use IsDate(txtString) in a QA step before using the values.

If Not IsDate("User entered stuff") then
... err message

20080236-EE-VQP-29 / EE_QW_1_20070628