Parse a string to a date without slashes

Question

In C# / Winform, I'm able to parse a string to a date if the user input: dd/mm/yyyy

DateTime.Parse(date).ToString();

I would like to be able to parse without the slash (like in a datagridview or a DateTimePicker for example).

01022012 should be parsed to 01/02/2012

Anyone know how to parse it with DateTime.Parse?

Here is my code :

    private void dataGridView_BadgeService_CellValidating(object sender, DataGridViewCellValidatingEventArgs e)
    {
        if (dataGridView_BadgeService.Columns[e.ColumnIndex].Name == "DateDebut" || dataGridView_BadgeService.Columns[e.ColumnIndex].Name == "DateFin")
        {
            string date = Convert.ToString(e.FormattedValue).Trim();

            if (date.Length > 0)
            {
                try
                {
                    DateTime _date;
                    DateTime.TryParseExact(date, "ddMMyyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out _date);
                    date = _date.ToShortDateString();
                    dataGridView_BadgeService.Rows[e.RowIndex].Cells[e.ColumnIndex].Value = date;
                }
                catch
                {
                   MessageBox.Show("Merci de saisir une date, ou laissez cette zone vierge", "Action-Informatique", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Exclamation);
                   e.Cancel = true;
                }
            }
        }

    }

Here is the Exception Message :

It says that : "System.FormatException: The string is not recognized as a DateTime valide"

Answer 1

Try with something like this...

string unslashedValue = "01022012"
DateTime date;
DateTime.TryParseExact(unslashedValue, "ddMMyyyy", 
                       CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, date);

... and, with date variable, you only need to...

string slashedValue = date.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy");