Dot Net Tips & Tricks , C# (C Sharp)Tips & Tricks

How to Create Chat Bots using Microsoft .NET

2016-11-13T18:30:00.001-08:00

Artificial Intelligent Agent through Microsoft .NET

Chatbots are everywhere. They are in Facebook messenger, Slack, Skype and also on Webpages. Conversational Agent / UI will be the one where most users will be. Hence its time for any customer facing company, retailer, bank to have an intelligent agent.

Microsoft has released Microsoft Bot Framework (Beta) to enable this. This framework provides the necessary APIs, Algorithms to achieve Natural Language Processing, Chat UI etc.

In the coming blogs we will delve deeply into AI

System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException occurred 'xClassCanOnlyBeUsedOnLoadComponent'.

2013-07-10T08:57:00.002-07:00

System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException occurred ClassCanOnlyBeUsedOnLoadComponent'. I was blank when this error has shot. Finally caught hold of the problem - A Space .

All I had to do was to remove the space. Replace

x:Class ="SabarimalaiAyyapa.Page2"

with

x:Class="SabarimalaiAyyapa.Page2"

Windows Phone Development : How to Create HyperLinks to External Sites / Pages using Silverlight XAML

2013-06-18T06:28:00.001-07:00

How to Link External Websites to Windows Phone Pages using C#/VB.NET

Once you create a +Windows Phone application with content, you will have a necessity to link it to multiple websites (External etc).

You can use either HyperlinkControl or the Hyperlink XAML Tag to achieve that.

Let's take our Sample App (refer QR Code) which has a good list of Hotels and Restaurants.

The App tries to provide links to these websites.

Adding Hyperlink Tag to the Content/Grid should help.

Exceptions while Adding Hyperlink / Navigating Hyperlink in Windows Phone Application

{"Cannot navigate to locations relative to a page."}

{"Navigation is only supported to relative URIs that are fragments, or begin with '/', or which contain ';component/'.\r\nParameter name: uri"}

The above exceptions are caused when the TargetName is not set to _blank

(or)

The http:// prefix is omitted in NavigateUri

The correct representation is given below:

<Hyperlink TargetName="_blank" NavigateUri="http://www.hotelnalaresidency.com">www.hotelnalaresidency.com</Hyperlink>

The +Silverlight code worked perfectly bringing the Website as shown below

See also:

Hyperlink Control in Windows Forms (VB.NET) Application

How to Download File from Website using C# (.NET)

Windows Phone/Silverlight application The type or namespace name 'XmlTextReader' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

2013-06-18T06:04:00.000-07:00

Windows Phone/Silverlight application The type or namespace name 'XmlTextReader' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

XmlTextReader or XmlDocument aren't supported in Silverlight. Hence use XMLReader for reading XMLDocuments

See also:
How to Add/Load XAML Dynamically to RichTextBox Control - Windows Phone Development C#/VB.NET

Create XML Files using .NET / Create XML Files using C#

Convert an XML file to HTML file using C#

How to Get All Elements of an XML using C# (.NET)

How to add XML Declaration to an XML document using C# (.NET)

Remove DOCTYPE declaration from XML Files using C#

How to Add/Load XAML Dynamically to RichTextBox Control - Windows Phone Development C#/VB.NET

2013-06-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

Windows Phone Development - Populate RichTextBox Content from External XAML File / How to Read Content from External Resource File

+Windows Phone Developers are under pressure to release many updates time to time. Please have a look at the sample application that we have been asked to develop. This particular application is about Tiruvannamalai which houses Ashrams of +yogi ram suratkumar , +Ramana Maharshi , +seshadri swamigal and famous for +Girivalam tiruvannamalai .

This place was known to western world, thanks to Paul Brunton. His book - A Search in Secret India: The Classic Work on Seeking a Guru was a best seller

Okay, we have diverted a lot. This particular application requires lot of content. A look at the App should make you understand. Have tried the following method to separate the content from XAML file and link it when necessary

Here is how it works:

Create Content
Embed As Resource
Create Place Holder (RTB)
Retrieve Resource
Assign to Control

Creating content is not an easy task. But beyond the scope of our post. Once the content is created, it has to be embedded as a resource file

Create the XAML for the content and save it as a text file and add it to the project's Resource

Ensure that the Resource is BuildAction is set to Embedded Resource. Once that is completed use +C# or +Visual Basic.NET code

the following code to get the XAML assigned to the RichTextBox using

How to Read the External ResourceFile using .NET (C#/VB.NET)

GetManifestResourceStream method is used to get the content from the embedded file as a string

private void GetXAML()

{
RichTextBox rtb = this.PageContent;

string result = "";

using (Stream stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()

.GetManifestResourceStream("Tiruvannamalai.Resources.PageContentXAML.txt"))

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream,System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))

{

result = reader.ReadToEnd();

}
string xamlOP = @"

;

string xamlMid = result;

string xamlCL = "
";

rtb.Xaml = xamlOP + xamlMid + xamlCL ;

}
The Content is sandwiched between Section tags (here as separate variables) and populated dynamically to the Windows Phone. I tested this using +Nokia Lumia 710 and looks good.

Xap packaging failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object

2013-06-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

Windows Phone Development - XAP packaging failed. Object reference not set to an instance of an object

Mostly this error occurs when there are some missing files/assemblies in the Project

Microsoft Technology Stack (ESB / ETL / Big Data / Visualization / ECM)

2013-05-22T03:24:00.000-07:00

What is the Microsoft Technology Stack for ETL / ESB and Big Data Visualization

Some time back when I wrote a blog post on Hadoop on Azure (Microsoft Big Data Solutions - Hadoop / Hive and SQL Server) some readers wanted to list the Technology Stack from Microsoft for ETL etc. Here is what I compiled :

Analytics / BI	SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
Big Data	HDInsight / Azure
BPMS / Workflow	Windows Workflow Framework
Cloud	Windows Azure
Database	SQL Server
Enterprise Content Management	SharePoint
ESB	BizTalk
ETL	SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS)
Portal	SharePoint
Reporting	Report Server
SOA	Windows Communication Framework
Visualization	Power Pivot

How to Track Page (Pivot Item) Navigation in Windows Phone using .NET (C#) / Windows Phone Pivot Control Events (C#/.NET)

2013-05-13T06:00:00.002-07:00

Pivot_Change /SelectionChange / Page Change Event in Windows Phone using .NET

One of the commonly used Windows Phone Application Type is Pivot. A Pivot application has a Pivot control and many Pivot Items in it.
This gives a good look and feel for content rich App

How to track Pivot Item Change

Each Pivot item contains some unique information, which makes it a necessary for tracking the change of Windows Phone Pivot Items

The XAML of the Pivot Control is shown below

<controls:Pivot Title="GNANA BHOOMI - TIRUVANNAMALAI" SelectionChanged="Pivot_SelectionChanged>;

The Pivot_SelectionChanged event can be used to track the flip / change of Pivot Item to a new one by the user

private void Pivot_SelectionChanged(object sender, SelectionChangedEventArgs e)

{
MessageBox.Show(((Pivot)sender).SelectedIndex.ToString());

}

SelectedIndex property provides the Index of the active Pivot Item

Microsoft Big Data Solutions - Hadoop / Hive and SQL Server

2013-05-13T04:30:00.001-07:00

How to create Big Data solutions in Microsoft Framework

For quite a while Microsoft developers were baited by Open source folks on the advancement of Big Data solutions in the open source world.

Hadoop + Hive + Pig + R gave a very good platform for Big Data solutions in Open Source platform. Slowly there are many licensed versions that are coming out of the same stack - Cloudera, Revolutionary R etc.

Microsoft had started Big Data based solutions long back in the Labs have released different tools like PowerPivot etc. Now Microsoft has its own Big Data Technology Stack

Microsoft's Big Data Technology Stack

HDInsight is Microsoft’s Hadoop-based distribution that is available on Windows Azure

The platform can be used for storing large chunks of data (as Blobs, Tables, Columnar Database etc)

SQL Server 2012 is used for Analysis and Integration (ETL)
the SQL Server instance and the Hadoop/Hive data warehouse are

configurable to establish connectivity between them

Real-Time Example of Big Data Solution using Microsoft Technology Stack

(Big Data Solution Courtesy: Ayad Shammout's SQL & BI Blog)

Ayad Shammout's SQL & BI Blog explains how the components are used in various stages effectively for analysing the Audit Logs

Microsoft's Statistical Component / Solution

Big Data is not data alone - it's more to do with Analyzing the Data. Microsoft has SQL Server 2012 Analysis services. However, certain analysis require custom coding / statistical analysis

Microsoft's Cloud Numerics (now in Azure labs) does exactly the same

How to Bind Grid to a DataSource in Windows Phone using C#

2013-03-16T08:45:00.003-07:00

How to Data Bind an Object to ListBox Control using C#.NET / Data Templates in C# Windows Phone Application

My director friend Kee Ran was pestering for an App that provides a list of Girivalam (a circumambulation) dates for his assistance. Attempted the same using Silverlight Data Template (Listbox) . The original grid as shown below:

It's been quite sometime since we had used a databinding (How to Bind an Object to TextBox) First things first, let us create a class that will hold this data

public class GirivalamDates

{

public string GirivalamMonth { get; set; }

public string GirivalamStartDt { get; set; }

public string GirivalamStartTime { get; set; }

public string GirivalamStartDay { get; set; }

public string GirivalamEndDt { get; set; }

public string GirivalamEndTime { get; set; }

public string GirivalamEndDay { get; set; }

}

}

Once the class is created, create some objects of this type and it to a List.

    gDates = new List();
            gDates.Add(new GirivalamDates
            {
                GirivalamMonth = "Mon",
                GirivalamStartDt = "Start",
                GirivalamStartTime = "Date",
                GirivalamStartDay = "   ",
                GirivalamEndDt = "End  ",
                GirivalamEndTime = "Date",
                GirivalamEndDay = "   "
            });

Add more to the List and then, create the XAML for the same

<StackPanel x:Name="ContentPanel" Margin="12,0" Grid.Row="1">

<ScrollViewer HorizontalScrollBarVisibility="Visible">

<ListBox

Name

="myItemsControl" VerticalAlignment="Top">

<ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>

<DataTemplate>

<Grid>

<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

<ColumnDefinition Width="100"/>

</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="0" Text="{Binding GirivalamMonth}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="1" Text="{Binding GirivalamStartDt}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="2" Text="{Binding GirivalamStartTime}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="3" Text="{Binding GirivalamStartDay}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="4" Text="{Binding GirivalamEndDt}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="5" Text="{Binding GirivalamEndTime}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

<TextBlock

Grid.Column="6" Text="{Binding GirivalamEndDay}"

FontSize="{StaticResource PhoneFontSizeMedium}"

/>

</Grid>

</DataTemplate>

</ItemsControl.ItemTemplate>

</ListBox>

</

ScrollViewer>

</StackPanel>

The TextBlock's Text attribute is bound to the appropriate property of the GirivalamDates class.

Finally bind the ListBox control to the gDates object.

myItemsControl.ItemsSource = gDates;

How to Load Image On The Fly using C#.NET on Windows Phone Content Control

2013-03-14T04:20:00.000-07:00

How to Load Image (PNG/JPG/BitMap) On The Fly using C#.NET on Windows Phone Content Control
How to add Controls to Phone Page in RunTime

There are many times you want to load the Image through code instead of the design time. The following snippet allows you to assign an Image available in the Project to the content control.

public void LoadImage()
        {
            string sFilePath = "/Images/Thiruvanamalai BackGround.png";

            Uri uriImage = new Uri(sFilePath,UriKind.Relative );
            Image  imgBackGrnd = new Image();
            imgBackGrnd.Source = new BitmapImage(uriImage);
            
            imgBackGrnd.Height = 200; //Set the Height and Width of the Image
            imgBackGrnd.Width = 200;
            imgBackGrnd.Stretch = Stretch.Fill; 
            ContentPanel.Children.Add(imgBackGrnd);

        }

Assigning Relative Path of URL

The code below assigns the Path of the Image, UriKind implies if it is relative / absolute

Uri uriImage = new Uri(sFilePath,UriKind.Relative );

The assigned image is shown below:

How to Add App, BackGround and SplashScreen Images to Windows Phone

2013-03-13T10:13:00.001-07:00

C# - Add Title and Tile images to Windows Phone

Windows Phone primary contains the following Application images

Application - This image is shown as Icon for Application
BackGround - This will be used in Tile
SplashScreen - This image will be shown during loading of the application

The images for Application and Background can be set from Properties Dialog:

The Size of the images are

Application - 62 X 62
Background - 173 X 173
SplashScreen - 480 X 800 (should be JPG)

The default Star Icon will be added to the project automatically from Visual Studio

C# .NET Images / Icons as Resources and Content

2012-07-26T08:47:00.001-07:00

Build Action Resources vs Content in .NET / C# .NET Images / Icons as Resources and Content

Images can be added either as a Resource or Content Resource - This is default for Images / Icons Content - The file is not compiled, but is included in the Content output group. For example, this setting is the default value for an .htm or other kind of Web file.

Having Images as Content will reduce the Filesize. Having as a Resource appears to load the images faster .. it might be my perception. Please express your views on it

How to Add Icons to the Windows Phone Project (C#/.NET)

2012-07-26T06:48:00.001-07:00

Windows Phone SDK comes with a list of Icons.

They are available in the following location

Location of Icons in Visual Studio (Windows Phone Development):

On 32-bit operating systems: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Icons On 64-bit operating systems: C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows Phone\v7.1\Icons

To add an icon to the project: Icons can be either created or added;

If you want to create a new Icon
file use the following option

To add an existing icon, select from the list of Icons

Do some edits / updates if needed

Set the set the Build Action to Content.
would

How to Enable ApplicationBar on Windows Phone (XAML)

2012-07-26T06:31:00.000-07:00

How to enable Application Bar in Windows Phone Application using .NET The Application bar is available in the XAML file. It is commented by default. Remove the commented section and use the Application Bar in your App The ApplicationBar can be customized

Using Directive in C#, Create an alias in C#

2012-05-06T08:15:00.000-07:00

Before you can use the classes in a given namespace in a C# program, you must add a using directive for that namespace to your C# source file. In some cases, you must also add a reference to the DLL that contains the namespace

The using directive has two uses:
· To allow the use of types in a namespace so that you do not have to qualify the use of a type in that namespace:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Data;

using System.Drawing;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Windows.Forms;

· To create an alias for a namespace or a type.

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

The using keyword is also used to create using statements, which help ensure that IDisposable objects such as files and fonts are handled correctly. See using Statement for more information.
The scope of a using directive is limited to the file in which it appears.
Create a using alias to make it easier to qualify an identifier to a namespace or type.

Big Statements like the following

oXL = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.application();

can be replaced with

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
oXL = new Excel.application();

Create a using directive to use the types in a namespace without having to specify the namespace. A using directive does not give you access to any namespaces that are nested in the namespace you specify.

Calculating Time taken for an operation using VB.NET (in Milliseconds)

2012-05-06T08:14:00.002-07:00

Calculate Processing Time for a Vb.NET Subroutine (accuracy to millisecond)

Not every project will have the luxury of having rational analyzer to check the process time for every subroutine/function. In those cases we can use the StopWatch to determine the time taken for a program

Imports System.Diagnostics

Sub Get_Accurate_ProcessTime()

Dim oWatch As New Stopwatch

oWatch.Start()

Process_database()

oWatch.Stop()

MsgBox("Total Time Taken for Database Operation := " & oWatch.ElapsedMilliseconds.ToString)

End Sub
A Stopwatch instance can measure elapsed time for one interval, or the total of elapsed time across multiple intervals. In a typical Stopwatch scenario, you call the Start method, then eventually call the Stop method, and then you check elapsed time using the Elapsed property.
A Stopwatch instance is either running or stopped; use IsRunning to determine the current state of a Stopwatch. Use Start to begin measuring elapsed time; use Stop to stop measuring elapsed time. Query the elapsed time value through the properties Elapsed, ElapsedMilliseconds, or ElapsedTicks. You can query the elapsed time properties while the instance is running or stopped. The elapsed time properties steadily increase while the Stopwatch is running; they remain constant when the instance is stopped.

By default, the elapsed time value of a Stopwatch instance equals the total of all measured time intervals. Each call to Start begins counting at the cumulative elapsed time; each call to Stop ends the current interval measurement and freezes the cumulative elapsed time value. Use the Reset method to clear the cumulative elapsed time in an existing Stopwatch instance.
The Stopwatch measures elapsed time by counting timer ticks in the underlying timer mechanism. If the installed hardware and operating system support a high-resolution performance counter, then the Stopwatch class uses that counter to measure elapsed time. Otherwise, the Stopwatch class uses the system timer to measure elapsed time. Use the Frequency and IsHighResolution fields to determine the precision and resolution of the Stopwatch timing implementation.

The Stopwatch class assists the manipulation of timing-related performance counters within managed code. Specifically, the Frequency field and GetTimestamp method can be used in place of the unmanaged Win32 APIs QueryPerformanceFrequency and QueryPerformanceCounter.

Regular Expression to Check Zip Code

2012-05-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

Regular Expression to Match Zip Code

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Function IsValidZip(ByVal sZipCode As String)

Return Regex.IsMatch(sZipCode, "^\d{5}(\-\d{4})?$")

End Function

The above will check for U.S . Zip codes like 55001-2434. 94941-3232 etc

To Check Indian Zip codes use

Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions

Function IsValidZip(ByVal sZipCode As String)

Return Regex.IsMatch(sZipCode, "^\d{6}$")

End Function

Matches 600040, 400123 etc

Check if Path is Absolute or Relative Path using C# (.NET)

2012-05-06T08:14:00.000-07:00

IsPathRooted method of Path class returns a value indicating whether the specified path string contains absolute or relative path information.

if (Path.IsPathRooted(@"c:\temp\") == true)

{

Console.WriteLine("Path is absolute");

}

else

{

Console.WriteLine("Path is relative");

}

How to find absolute path using C# (.NET), How to find relative path using C# (.NET), C# (.NET) Path Class, C# (.NET) IsPathRooted method

Insert CSV File to Array using C#

2012-05-06T08:13:00.001-07:00

Read Text File to Array C#/ Insert CSV File to Array using C# / C# Array from Text/CSV Files

ReadAllLines method can be used to read the contents of a CSV file to array. Each line of the text file will become the elements of the array

public void ReadFile2Array()

{

String[] FileContent = File.ReadAllLines(@"C:\Temp\vba.csv");

int LineNo = 0;

foreach (string Line in FileContent)

{

LineNo +=1;

Console.WriteLine("Line " + LineNo.ToString() + " " + Line);

}

ReadAllLines method opens a text file, reads all lines of the file into a string array, and then closes the file.

The input file is shown below

The output will be like

The type or namespace name 'ComVisible' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

2012-05-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

The type or namespace name 'ComVisibleAttribute' could not be found (are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?)

This error occurs when you are trying to use ComVisibleAttribute in a class without a reference to System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace

[ComVisible(true)]

public interface IAddinVSTO

{

void SayHello();

}

Should have a reference to System.Runtime.InteropServices namespace like shown below

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

[ComVisible(true)]

public interface IAddinVSTO

{

void SayHello();

}

ComVisibleAttribute Error

How to Set Built-In Properties of Word Document using VB.NET

2012-05-06T07:57:00.001-07:00

VB.NET Set Built-in Properties

With more collaboration happening across offices, document properties have gained more importance. Word properties can be categorised as a)Custom Property b) Built-in property

Some common built-in properties are

· Title

· Subject

· Author

· Keywords

· Comments

The following code can be used to get the built-in property of the given word document.

Here are the directives necessary for the program

Imports Office = Microsoft.Office.Core

Imports Word = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Word

Imports System.Reflection

System.Reflection looks an odd man here right! Yes, we will be using the Reflection class to retrieve the properties of the Word document

The following variables initialize the Word Application

Dim oWA As Word.Application = New Word.Application

Dim oWD As Word.Document

The code uses System.Type class’s members like InvokeMember, Gettype etc. Type is the root of the System.Reflection functionality and is the primary way to access metadata.

The following code opens a Word document and sets its ‘Subject’ property.

Sub SetBuiltInProp()

Try

Dim oBuiltProps As Object

oWA.Visible = True

oWD = oWA.Documents.Open("C:\ShasurData\DND_DEC_2008.doc")

oBuiltProps = oWD.BuiltInDocumentProperties

Dim TypBuiltProps As Type = oBuiltProps.GetType

Dim sPropertyName As String = "Subject"

Dim oProp As Object = TypBuiltProps.InvokeMember("Item", BindingFlags.Default Or BindingFlags.GetProperty, Nothing, oBuiltProps, New [Object]() {sPropertyName})

Dim sPropValue As String = "VSTO Examples"

Dim TypSubject As Type = oProp.GetType

TypSubject.InvokeMember("Value", BindingFlags.Default Or BindingFlags.SetProperty, Nothing, oProp, New [Object]() {sPropValue})

Catch ex As Exception

Console.WriteLine(ex.Message)

Finally

oWD.Save()

oWD.Close()

oWA.Quit()

End Try

End Sub

The GetType method returns a Type object that represents the type of an instance.

Setting other built-in properties will be the same as above.

Excel Runtimes not removed by Excel.Quit / Application.Quit

2012-05-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

How to delete the leftover Excel object using VB.NET / Vb.NET delete Excel from memory

Excel runtimes that remain after the program is a nemesis. Many times this might be due to the leftover Excel objects in the program that causes Excel to remain in memory even after Application.Quit. Workbooks that are modified and left open often causes this problem. We have tried out one method to get rid of the Excel in memory using Vb.NET. We assumed that the programs that used Excel has been terminated and if any Excel remains in the memory it should be of the ‘legitimate’ application that the user has opened or the left over Excel.

We checked the presence of Title for Excel Application, which was present in all cases for the open instance of Excel. Left over instances didn’t had the title. The following code ‘kills’ the instances of Excel in memory that don’t have a WindowTitle.

Public Sub KillUnusedExcelProcess()

Dim oXlProcess As Process() = Process.GetProcessesByName("Excel")

For Each oXLP As Process In oXlProcess

If Len(oXLP.MainWindowTitle) = 0 Then

oXLP.Kill()

End If

End Sub

Try if it works for you and post your suggestions or modifications

Keywords : automation does not close microsoft excel, Application.Quit not closing Excel

How to change Text Color of Console (.NET/C#)

2012-04-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

Configuring C# Console Application Title and Text Color

Console application should also look nice. There are ways to do it.

First - have a good title .. most often I have seen the Application Path etc as the title

The following snippet provides a way to customize the title of Console Application and also the TextColor

Console.Title = "Course Ware Example";
            System.Console.WriteLine("What you did on Red Letter Day");
            Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red ;
            string s1 = Console.ReadLine();

C# IsDate Function / How to check valid date using C# function

2012-03-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

IsDate Function in .NET

If you want to check if the given entry (string) is a valid date you could have used Microsoft.VisualBasic.IsDate Function in .NET. This function is available in VB.NET. For C# you can have a similar function

Here is a hint how to create that

private void IsDateExample()
        {
            //string s1 = DateTime.Now.ToString();
            bool bSuccess = false;
            DateTime d1;
            s1 = "17-Mar-20112";
            bSuccess = DateTime.TryParse(s1, out d1);
            if (bSuccess == true)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(d1.ToString());
            
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Not a date at all");
            }


 

        }

The function uses DateTime.TryParse to validate the given string