[2005] Parse a DateTime value from XML file

[wrack]

Hi,

We are receiving XML feed from a service provider for a Match between TeamA & TeamB. In that feed among all the other stuff there is a DateTime node. Sample is below.

<NFL>
  <DATE>10-08</DATE>
  <WORDCOUNT>0000</WORDCOUNT>
  <DATETIME>st 10-08-06 13:42 et</DATETIME>
  <AWAYTEAM>WASHINGTON</AWAYTEAM>
  <HOMETEAM>NYGIANTS--</HOMETEAM>
</NFL>

All nodes are processed fine but I am having problems understanding the foramt of <DateTime> node's innertext. Can someone help me out on how to parse it and what does the "st" and "et" stands for?

I need to convert the <DateTime> in Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -5, GMT -4 DST)

Any help is appreciated.

Cheers

[jmcilhinney]

How as that value written in the first place? It doesn't look like a standard date/time format as far as I can tell.

[wrack]

How as that value written in the first place? It doesn't look like a standard date/time format as far as I can tell.

Yeah that is exactly what I thought too. We are getting this from ESPN (I think) and they are giving us the XML feed file, I assume the data is coming from their database.

Looking at the documentation gives me this.

The <DateTime> tag contains a timestamp indicating when the message was transmitted.

[stanav]

In this text "st 10-08-06 13:42 et"
st stands for Standard Time (versus daylight saving time)
et stands for Eastern Time (timezone)
10-08-06 13:42 is the date and time in MM-dd-yy HH:mm format.

Just a guess though....

[wrack]

Yeah that is what I have fugured after thinking about it and that is the only thing which makes sense.

I assume when daylight savings is in order then the st would probably be replaced by dt. Again the documentation doesn't mention this at all.

Thanks for helping me with such a vague information.

[jmcilhinney]

It looks to me like you're just going to have to parse the prefix and suffix yourself, with no specific help from the Framework. Someone recently posted a TimeZoneInfo class in the CodeBank which may prove useful at some point. As for the actual date/time part, the Date.Parse or .ParseExact method will do the job there.

[wrack]

Yups that is already being done. I just needed extra help with the "st" and "et".

Thanks all for your input