Strange error when parsing string to date?

Question

When I try to parse date like this:

DateTime t1 = DateTime.ParseExact(\"August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM\", \"MMMM dd, yyyy, hh:mm:ss tt\", System.Globalization.         


        

Answer 1

I was hit with this too. In my case, a UI automation test failed because IE seems to add this LRM (Left-to-right) mark automatically (Firefox and Chrome do not). A quick line of code that strips it away:

Regex.Replace(date, @"\u200e", string.Empty)

Answer 2

Because your string

string s = "‎August ‎11, ‎2013, ‏‎11:00:00 PM";

Includes 0x200e(8206) character at the beginning and end of August. You can see it easily by

var chars = s.ToCharArray();

Seems to be a copy+paste problem

You can remove those chars by:

var newstr = new string(s.Where(c => c <128).ToArray())

Answer 3

Your second string has hidden characters.

Run this:

string s1 = "August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM";
string s2 = "‎August ‎11, ‎2013, ‏‎11:00:00 PM";

Console.WriteLine(s1.Length); // 28
Console.WriteLine(s2.Length); // 33

Specifically, as char arrays, the second one is this:

s2.ToCharArray();
{char[33]}
[0]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[1]: 65 'A'
[2]: 117 'u'
[3]: 103 'g'
[4]: 117 'u'
[5]: 115 's'
[6]: 116 't'
[7]: 32 ' '
[8]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[9]: 49 '1'
[10]: 49 '1'
[11]: 44 ','
[12]: 32 ' '
[13]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[14]: 50 '2'
[15]: 48 '0'
[16]: 49 '1'
[17]: 51 '3'
[18]: 44 ','
[19]: 32 ' '
[20]: 8207 '‏' // ????
[21]: 8206 '‎' // ????
[22]: 49 '1'
[23]: 49 '1'
[24]: 58 ':'
[25]: 48 '0'
[26]: 48 '0'
[27]: 58 ':'
[28]: 48 '0'
[29]: 48 '0'
[30]: 32 ' '
[31]: 80 'P'
[32]: 77 'M'

Answer 4

Haha, I found it.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with both of your code. Both works fine. Just your strings are not equal. There are some hidden characters on your second one.

Your first "August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM".Length is 28

but second "‎August ‎11, ‎2013, ‏‎11:00:00 PM".Length is 33

Let's try this code;

string s = "August 11, 2013, 11:00:00 PM";
string s1 = "‎August ‎11, ‎2013, ‏‎11:00:00 PM";

char[] c = s.ToCharArray();
char[] c1 = s1.ToCharArray();

foreach (var ch in c)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ch);
}

foreach (var ch1 in c1)
{
    Console.WriteLine(ch1);
}

Output will be;

A
u
g
u
s
t

1
1
,

2
0
1
3
,

1
1
:
0
0
:
0
0

P
M
? // <-- What the hell?
A
u
g
u
s
t

? // <-- What the hell?
1
1
,

? // <-- What the hell?
2
0
1
3
,

? // <-- What the hell?
? // <-- What the hell?
1
1
:
0
0
:
0
0

P
M

As a solution, don't copy paste any string to your code :).