C# parse DateTime

Hi,

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string str = "20081231113000"

ApplicationDate = DateTime.ParseExact(str, "yyyyMMdd", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
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The above code works fine and provides the application date in the format that I need. However sometimes str is blank. In that case the program throws an exception that the string is in invalid format.

How can I change this code so that it will parse and give me the date if available and if the date is unavailable assigns a value of null or minvalue for the applicationdate.

Would a Try Catch be a good approach? or is there a better way?

Thanks