PowerShell:
Parsing a date from a string

How to:

PowerShell makes parsing dates from strings straightforward with its Get-Date cmdlet and [datetime] type accelerator, which work well for standard date formats. For more complex or non-standard date strings, the [datetime]::ParseExact method can be utilized to specify the exact format.

Using Get-Date and [datetime]:

# Simple conversion using Get-Date
$stringDate = "2023-04-01"
$date = Get-Date $stringDate
echo $date

Sample output:

Saturday, April 1, 2023 12:00:00 AM

# Using the type accelerator [datetime]
$stringDate = "April 1, 2023"
$date = [datetime]$stringDate
echo $date

Sample output:

Saturday, April 1, 2023 12:00:00 AM

Using [datetime]::ParseExact for non-standard formats:

For formats not automatically recognized, you can define the exact format to ensure correct parsing.

$stringDate = "01-04-2023 14:00"
$format = "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm"
$culture = [Globalization.CultureInfo]::InvariantCulture
$date = [datetime]::ParseExact($stringDate, $format, $culture)
echo $date

Sample output:

Saturday, April 1, 2023 2:00:00 PM

Leveraging Third-party Libraries

Although PowerShell itself is quite powerful for date parsing, for very complex scenarios or additional functionality, you might explore .NET libraries such as NodaTime, though for many typical use cases, PowerShell’s native capabilities will suffice.

# Using NodaTime just as an illustration, note you need to add the library to your project
# Install-Package NodaTime -Version 3.0.5
# Using NodaTime to parse a date
[string]$stringDate = "2023-04-01T14:00:00Z"
[NodaTime.Instant]::FromDateTimeUtc([datetime]::UtcNow)
[NodaTime.LocalDate]$localDate = [NodaTime.LocalDate]::FromDateTime([datetime]::UtcNow)
echo $localDate

Sample Note: The above code is a conceptual illustration. In practice, ensure NodaTime is correctly added to your project for the types and methods to be available.