How to parse an XML datetime string IGNORING any time zone info?

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I'm updating an application that reads from an XML file using System.Xml.XmlReader and needs to read a value that's an Xml date-time and generate a string representation of that as local time, without time zone info.
The previous code just pulled the attribute value string apart at fixed positions and then re-constructed a string with string.Format(). I thought this was a bit fragile (and very ugly).
I changed it to:

C#

DateTime runDate = reader.ReadElementContentAsDateTime();
string output = runDate.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);

On my system (US PDT), this seemed to work perfectly:
The xml date time string: 2015-02-24T10:21:42.3414491-08:00
Gave back: 02/24/2015 10:21:42
However: This fails the unit tests when they are run on the integration build server, because that server is in a different time zone.

So, is there a way to parse a string into a local DateTime ignoring the time zone, preferably without string manipulation.
I know that I could use a Regex but it just seems wrong not to use DateTime as the intermediate form for data which is a date time.
---
This is quite frustrating, because the ReadElementContentAsDateTime solution does work in the normal case of converting the xml immediately after it is generated, on the same system. It's just the build server unit tests that fail.

What I have tried:

I tried ReadElementContentAsString and then using XmlConvert.ToDateTime with the various XmlDateTimeSerializationMode values.
No luck.
There just doesn't seem to be a way to parse ignoring the timezone info.

Posted 29-Jun-16 11:46am

Matt T Heffron

Updated 29-Jun-16 12:20pm

Add a Solution

1 solution

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

E.F. Nijboer · Answer 1 · 2016-06-29T12:20:00

Not the most beautiful code, but try changing the thread current culture temporarily and restoring afterwards, something like this (Check the timezone by the way, the code uses US-us as an example)

C#

CultureInfo currentCultureInfo = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
try 
{
   Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
   DateTime runDate = reader.ReadElementContentAsDateTime();
   string output = runDate.ToString("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
} finally 
{
   Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = currentCultureInfo;
}

Good luck!

ps. the use of CultureInfo.InvariantCulture in the ToString method is only used for formatting, not for converting or anything.