Javascript date to C# via Ajax

Question

I have javascript date object which gives me a date string in this format, "Wed Dec 16 00:00:00 UTC-0400 2009".

I pass this via Ajax to the server (ASP.NET c#)

How can I convert, "Wed Dec 16 00:00:00 UTC-0400 2009" to a C# DateTime object. DateTime.Parse fails.

Answer 1

You can use DateTime.ParseExact which allows you to specify a format string to be used for parsing:

DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact("Wed Dec 16 00:00:00 UTC-0400 2009",                                   "ddd MMM d HH:mm:ss UTCzzzzz yyyy",                                   CultureInfo.InvariantCulture); 

Answer 2

The most reliable way would be to use milliseconds since the epoch. You can easily get this in JavaScript by calling Date.getTime(). Then, in C# you can convert it to a DateTime like this:

long msSinceEpoch = 1260402952906; // Value from Date.getTime() in JavaScript return new DateTime(1970, 1, 1).AddTicks(msSinceEpoch * 10000); 

You have to multiply by 10,000 to convert from milliseconds to "ticks", which are 100 nanoseconds.