Parsing & offsets in C#

Exact parsing, and offsets that pin a moment to the globe.

using System.Globalization;

var stamp = DateTime.ParseExact("2026-08-01 14:30",
    "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Console.WriteLine(stamp.DayOfWeek);

// an offset makes "when" unambiguous across time zones
var utc = new DateTimeOffset(stamp, TimeSpan.Zero);
Console.WriteLine(utc.ToUnixTimeSeconds());

if (!DateTime.TryParse("not a date", out _))
{
    Console.WriteLine("TryParse said no, quietly");
}

How it works

1. ParseExact with an invariant culture takes no format guesses.
2. DateTimeOffset plus ToUnixTimeSeconds is the interchange path.
3. TryParse with a discard rejects bad input without ceremony.

Keywords and builtins used here

• if
• new
• out
• using
• var

The run, in numbers

Lines

14

Characters to type

418

Tokens

75

Three-star pace

85 tpm

At the three-star pace of 85 tokens a minute, this run takes about 53 seconds.

Type this snippet

Step 3 of 3 in Dates & times, step 9 of 17 in The .NET library.

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