DateTime and String Validation

Question

I have a simple question about DateTime in c#.

I have a textbox where I ask the user to input a date.

I want to validate that the textbox is not empty before parsing the string to a datetime to validate if the date is in the right format.

Here is a bit of my code:

String strStartDate = txtStartDate.txt; DateTime StartDate = DateTime.Parse(strStartDate);

I have other text boxes for the names and such and I also validate if they are empty with a if statement like this (same if statement to validate if strStartDate is empty):

 if (strFirstName.Trim() == "") { txtFirstName.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Yellow; errorMessage = errorMessage + "First Name may not be empty. "; } else { txtFirstName.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.White; }

The debugger stops as soon as I try the submit button, it says that String was not recognized as a valid DateTime.

Is there a way to see if the string is empty before validating the DateTime?

Brandon Moore · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 04:43:56Z

You can also use TryParse:

 string SomeDate = "1/1/2012"; DateTime dt; var success = DateTime.TryParse(SomeDate, out dt);

Then you can check success to see if it was a valid date or not. This will protect you from any invalid date string, not just an empty or null string.

parapura rajkumar · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-14 04:29:20Z

0

String.IsNullOrEmpty will do what you want

answered Nov 14, 2011 at 4:29

parapura rajkumar

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