VB - Convert long String-number to Integer

Question

Alright, so I'm not exactly very oriented when it comes to functions available in VB. I have a string containing the current date and time and need to convert it to a integer so i can compare the time.

Dim my_str as String = "201308281110"
Dim my_int as Integer = Convert.ToInt32(my_str)

I cant do that with this string apparently. Because I think it is too long for the 32-bit integer. All the other convertions I have tried also fails. That including "ToInt64", "Int", "CInt"... So, any idea how to convert this longer string to an integer?

Answer 1

Why don't you just simply use Date? You can compare Dates with each other, so there's no need to use an integer for comparing.

Dim my_date as Date = DateTime.ParseExact(my_str, "yyyyMMddhhmm", System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)