Rust:
Parsing a date from a string

How to:

Using Rust’s Standard Library (chrono Crate)

The Rust standard library does not include date parsing directly, but the widely-used chrono crate is a robust solution for date and time manipulation. First, add chrono to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
chrono = "0.4"

Then, use chrono to parse a date string into a NaiveDate object:

extern crate chrono;
use chrono::NaiveDate;

fn main() {
    let date_str = "2023-04-01";
    let date = NaiveDate::parse_from_str(date_str, "%Y-%m-%d")
        .expect("Failed to parse date");

    println!("Parsed date: {}", date);
}

// Sample Output:
// Parsed date: 2023-04-01

Using Rust’s Advanced Date-Time Handling (time Crate)

For more advanced date-time handling, including more ergonomic parsing, consider the time crate. First, include it in your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
time = "0.3"

Then, parse a date string using the Date type and PrimitiveDateTime:

use time::{Date, PrimitiveDateTime, macros::datetime};

fn main() {
    let date_str = "2023-04-01 12:34:56";
    let parsed_date = PrimitiveDateTime::parse(
        date_str, 
        &datetime!("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
    ).expect("Failed to parse date and time");

    println!("Parsed datetime: {}", parsed_date);
}

// Sample Output:
// Parsed datetime: 2023-04-01 12:34:56

Both examples showcase how Rust, with the aid of third-party crates, facilitates the parsing of date strings into manipulable date objects, making it a powerful tool for software development involving temporal data.