DateTime.ParseExact returns today if date string and format are set to "General"

Question

During troubleshooting, I came across this weird behaviour which occurs when parsing text to create a DateTime object in C# (in .Net Core 8.0).

Can anybody explain why the following statements return today's date when I would have expected them to fail?

if (DateTime.TryParseExact("General", "General", null, DateTimeStyles.None, out var dateTime))
    Debug.WriteLine(dateTime);

var dateTime2 = DateTime.ParseExact("General", "General", null);
Debug.WriteLine(dateTime2);

Is this behaviour expected? And if it is, can anyone explain why or how it makes sense?

Answer 1

Hi @Shola Ogunde .

This behavior is expected.

According to the remark in DateTime.ParseExact Method.

The DateTime.ParseExact(String, String, IFormatProvider) method parses the string representation of a date, which must be in the format defined by the format parameter. It also requires that the <Date> and <Time> elements of the string representation of a date and time appear in the order specified by format, and that s have no white space other than that permitted by format. If format defines a date with no time element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value has a time of midnight (00:00:00). If format defines a time with no date element and the parse operation succeeds, the resulting DateTime value has a date of DateTime.Now.Date.

Because the format used for parsing is a string type parameter, not restricted to an enumeration type.

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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