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How do I accept MM/DD/YYYY date format in using XmlSerializer?

Hello.

I am accepting an XML feed from a client. I have created a class for to match it and am attempting to use the XmlSerializer class to automatically convert the feed to a binary format for use. There is a date that is sent over in MM/DD/YYYY format and my call to XmlSerializer.Deserialize is giving me the following error:

String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Is there an XmlAttribute I can use to make the class accept this format, or something else I can do? I'm currently using [serial.XmlElementAttribute(DataType="date")], but that is working for MM/DD/YYYY. It is working if on some test cases in which I changed the format to YYYY-MM-DD, but that is not an option for me at this point unless I transform it which does not really make sense for one field.

Thanks,

Michael Mercieca

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

AvonWyss

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SOLUTION

Philyard8133

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Philyard8133

Sorry ! I posted the wrong MyDate class, that other one will just save it like a normal Xml date, oposite of what you wanted!

public class MyDate
{
      public string dateValue;

      public DateTime GetDateValue()
      {
            return Convert.ToDateTime(dateValue);
      }

      public MyDate()
      {
      }

      public MyDate(DateTime aValue)
      {
            dateValue = aValue.ToShortDateString();
      }
}

AvonWyss

Philyard8133, note that this is exactly what I was suggesting in my comment. ;-)

HydeNSeeka

ASKER

Thanks guys. I was unaware of the "standard" date time format. I've given Avon 400 pts for the original answer and 100 to Philyard for taking the time to add all of the code. Your help is much appreciated.

AvonWyss

You're welcome, and thank you very much.

Philyard8133

Thank you HydeNSeeka!

AvonWyss - you were too quick for me! when I first check there were no comments and I didn't refresh before I posted mine :p

AvonWyss

Sorry Philyard8133, I must admit that you certainly needed more time to write your comment than I did. I hope you aren't too disappointed about that... I wish you all the best!