How to parse a month name string to an integer for comparison in C

Question

I need to be able to compare some month names I have in an array   It would be nice if there were some direct way like   Month toInt  January    gt  Month toInt  May     My Google searching seems to suggest the only way is to write your own method  but this seems like a common enough problem that I would think it would have been already implemented in  Net  anyone done this before

User · Answer

If you use the DateTime ParseExact  -method that several people have suggested  you should carefully consider what you want to happen when the application runs in a non-English environment    In Denmark  which of ParseExact  Januar        and ParseExact  January        should work and which should fail    That will be the difference between CultureInfo CurrentCulture and CultureInfo InvariantCulture

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What I did was to use SimpleDateFormat to create a format string  and parse the text to a date  and then retrieve the month from that  The code is below   int year   2012   or any other year String monthName    January    or any other month SimpleDateFormat format   new SimpleDateFormat  dd-MMM-yyyy    int monthNumber   format parse  01-    monthName    -    year  getMonth

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I translate it into C  code in Spanish version  regards   public string ObtenerNumeroMes string NombreMes           string NumeroMes             switch NombreMes             case   ENERO                 NumeroMes    01               return NumeroMes           case   FEBRERO                 NumeroMes    02               return NumeroMes           case   MARZO                 NumeroMes    03               return NumeroMes           case   ABRIL                 NumeroMes    04               return NumeroMes           case   MAYO                 NumeroMes    05               return NumeroMes           case   JUNIO                 NumeroMes    06               return NumeroMes           case   JULIO                 NumeroMes    07               return NumeroMes           case   AGOSTO                 NumeroMes    08               return NumeroMes           case   SEPTIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    09               return NumeroMes           case   OCTUBRE                 NumeroMes    10               return NumeroMes           case   NOVIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    11               return NumeroMes           case   DICIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    12               return NumeroMes               default              Console WriteLine  Error                return  ERROR

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You could do something like this   Convert ToDate month     01  1900   Month

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You can use the DateTime Parse method to get a DateTime object and then check its Month property  Do something like this   int month   DateTime Parse  1     monthName     2008   Month    The trick is to build a valid date to create a DateTime object

User · Answer

You could do something like this   Convert ToDate month     01  1900   Month

User · Answer

If you use the DateTime ParseExact  -method that several people have suggested  you should carefully consider what you want to happen when the application runs in a non-English environment    In Denmark  which of ParseExact  Januar        and ParseExact  January        should work and which should fail    That will be the difference between CultureInfo CurrentCulture and CultureInfo InvariantCulture

User · Answer

And answering this seven years after the question was asked  it is possible to do this comparison using built-in methods   Month toInt  January    gt  Month toInt  May     becomes  Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                   t   gt  t Equals  January   StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase    gt  Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                   t   gt  t Equals  May   StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase     Which can be refactored into an extension method for simplicity  The following is a LINQPad example  hence the Dump   method calls    void Main           January  GetMonthIndex    gt   May  GetMonthIndex    Dump          January  GetMonthIndex       january  GetMonthIndex    Dump          January  GetMonthIndex    lt   May  GetMonthIndex    Dump       public static class Extension       public static int GetMonthIndex this string month            return Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                           t   gt  t Equals month  StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase              With output   False True True

User · Answer

You could do something like this   Convert ToDate month     01  1900   Month

User · Answer

If you use the DateTime ParseExact  -method that several people have suggested  you should carefully consider what you want to happen when the application runs in a non-English environment    In Denmark  which of ParseExact  Januar        and ParseExact  January        should work and which should fail    That will be the difference between CultureInfo CurrentCulture and CultureInfo InvariantCulture

User · Answer

You can use the DateTime Parse method to get a DateTime object and then check its Month property  Do something like this   int month   DateTime Parse  1     monthName     2008   Month    The trick is to build a valid date to create a DateTime object

User · Answer

DateTime ParseExact monthName   MMMM   CultureInfo CurrentCulture   Month  Although  for your purposes  you ll probably be better off just creating a Dictionary lt string  int gt  mapping the month s name to its value

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If you are using c  3 0  or above  you can use extenders

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One simply solution would be create a Dictionary with names and values  Then using Contains   you can find the right value   Dictionary lt string  string gt  months   new Dictionary lt string  string gt                         january    01                       february    02                       march    03                       april    04                       may    05                       june    06                       july    07                       august    08                       september    09                       october    10                       november    11                       december    12       foreach  var month in months        if  StringThatContainsMonth ToLower   Contains month Key                 string thisMonth   month Value

User · Answer

You could do something like this   Convert ToDate month     01  1900   Month

User · Answer

You don t have to create a DateTime instance to do this  It s as simple as this   public static class Month       public static int ToInt this string month                return Array IndexOf              CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames              month ToLower CultureInfo CurrentCulture                 1            I m running on the da-DK culture  so this unit test passes    Theory   InlineData  Januar   1    InlineData  Februar   2    InlineData  Marts   3    InlineData  April   4    InlineData  Maj   5    InlineData  Juni   6    InlineData  Juli   7    InlineData  August   8    InlineData  September   9    InlineData  Oktober   10    InlineData  November   11    InlineData  December   12   public void Test string monthName  int expected        var actual   monthName ToInt        Assert Equal expected  actual       I ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to create an overload where you can pass in an explicit CultureInfo

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Public Function returnMonthNumber ByVal monthName As String  As Integer     Select Case monthName ToLower         Case Is    january              Return 1         Case Is    february              Return 2         Case Is    march              Return 3         Case Is    april              Return 4         Case Is    may              Return 5         Case Is    june              Return 6         Case Is    july              Return 7         Case Is    august              Return 8         Case Is    september              Return 9         Case Is    october              Return 10         Case Is    november              Return 11         Case Is    december              Return 12         Case Else             Return 0     End Select End Function   caution code is in Beta version

User · Answer

And answering this seven years after the question was asked  it is possible to do this comparison using built-in methods   Month toInt  January    gt  Month toInt  May     becomes  Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                   t   gt  t Equals  January   StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase    gt  Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                   t   gt  t Equals  May   StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase     Which can be refactored into an extension method for simplicity  The following is a LINQPad example  hence the Dump   method calls    void Main           January  GetMonthIndex    gt   May  GetMonthIndex    Dump          January  GetMonthIndex       january  GetMonthIndex    Dump          January  GetMonthIndex    lt   May  GetMonthIndex    Dump       public static class Extension       public static int GetMonthIndex this string month            return Array FindIndex  CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames                           t   gt  t Equals month  StringComparison CurrentCultureIgnoreCase              With output   False True True

User · Answer

You can use an enum of months   public enum Month       January      February                   December         public Month ToInt Month Input        return  int Enum Parse typeof Month   Input  true        I am not 100  certain on the syntax for enum Parse    though

User · Answer

If you use the DateTime ParseExact  -method that several people have suggested  you should carefully consider what you want to happen when the application runs in a non-English environment    In Denmark  which of ParseExact  Januar        and ParseExact  January        should work and which should fail    That will be the difference between CultureInfo CurrentCulture and CultureInfo InvariantCulture

User · Answer

You can use an enum of months   public enum Month       January      February                   December         public Month ToInt Month Input        return  int Enum Parse typeof Month   Input  true        I am not 100  certain on the syntax for enum Parse    though

User · Answer

You can use an enum of months   public enum Month       January      February                   December         public Month ToInt Month Input        return  int Enum Parse typeof Month   Input  true        I am not 100  certain on the syntax for enum Parse    though

User · Answer

I translate it into C  code in Spanish version  regards   public string ObtenerNumeroMes string NombreMes           string NumeroMes             switch NombreMes             case   ENERO                 NumeroMes    01               return NumeroMes           case   FEBRERO                 NumeroMes    02               return NumeroMes           case   MARZO                 NumeroMes    03               return NumeroMes           case   ABRIL                 NumeroMes    04               return NumeroMes           case   MAYO                 NumeroMes    05               return NumeroMes           case   JUNIO                 NumeroMes    06               return NumeroMes           case   JULIO                 NumeroMes    07               return NumeroMes           case   AGOSTO                 NumeroMes    08               return NumeroMes           case   SEPTIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    09               return NumeroMes           case   OCTUBRE                 NumeroMes    10               return NumeroMes           case   NOVIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    11               return NumeroMes           case   DICIEMBRE                 NumeroMes    12               return NumeroMes               default              Console WriteLine  Error                return  ERROR

User · Answer

One simply solution would be create a Dictionary with names and values  Then using Contains   you can find the right value   Dictionary lt string  string gt  months   new Dictionary lt string  string gt                         january    01                       february    02                       march    03                       april    04                       may    05                       june    06                       july    07                       august    08                       september    09                       october    10                       november    11                       december    12       foreach  var month in months        if  StringThatContainsMonth ToLower   Contains month Key                 string thisMonth   month Value

User · Answer

What I did was to use SimpleDateFormat to create a format string  and parse the text to a date  and then retrieve the month from that  The code is below   int year   2012   or any other year String monthName    January    or any other month SimpleDateFormat format   new SimpleDateFormat  dd-MMM-yyyy    int monthNumber   format parse  01-    monthName    -    year  getMonth

User · Answer

This code helps you     using System Globalization         string FullMonthName   CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat GetMonthName DateTime UtcNow Month     GetMonthName Method - it returns string     If you want to get a month as an integer  then simply use -   DateTime dt  DateTime UtcNow  int month  dt Month    I hope  it helps you     Thanks

User · Answer

If you are using c  3 0  or above  you can use extenders

User · Answer

You can use an enum of months   public enum Month       January      February                   December         public Month ToInt Month Input        return  int Enum Parse typeof Month   Input  true        I am not 100  certain on the syntax for enum Parse    though

User · Answer

You can use the DateTime Parse method to get a DateTime object and then check its Month property  Do something like this   int month   DateTime Parse  1     monthName     2008   Month    The trick is to build a valid date to create a DateTime object

User · Answer

If you are using c  3 0  or above  you can use extenders

User · Answer

You can use the DateTime Parse method to get a DateTime object and then check its Month property  Do something like this   int month   DateTime Parse  1     monthName     2008   Month    The trick is to build a valid date to create a DateTime object

User · Answer

DateTime ParseExact monthName   MMMM   CultureInfo CurrentCulture   Month  Although  for your purposes  you ll probably be better off just creating a Dictionary lt string  int gt  mapping the month s name to its value

User · Answer

Public Function returnMonthNumber ByVal monthName As String  As Integer     Select Case monthName ToLower         Case Is    january              Return 1         Case Is    february              Return 2         Case Is    march              Return 3         Case Is    april              Return 4         Case Is    may              Return 5         Case Is    june              Return 6         Case Is    july              Return 7         Case Is    august              Return 8         Case Is    september              Return 9         Case Is    october              Return 10         Case Is    november              Return 11         Case Is    december              Return 12         Case Else             Return 0     End Select End Function   caution code is in Beta version

User · Answer

DateTime ParseExact monthName   MMMM   CultureInfo CurrentCulture   Month  Although  for your purposes  you ll probably be better off just creating a Dictionary lt string  int gt  mapping the month s name to its value

User · Answer

You don t have to create a DateTime instance to do this  It s as simple as this   public static class Month       public static int ToInt this string month                return Array IndexOf              CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat MonthNames              month ToLower CultureInfo CurrentCulture                 1            I m running on the da-DK culture  so this unit test passes    Theory   InlineData  Januar   1    InlineData  Februar   2    InlineData  Marts   3    InlineData  April   4    InlineData  Maj   5    InlineData  Juni   6    InlineData  Juli   7    InlineData  August   8    InlineData  September   9    InlineData  Oktober   10    InlineData  November   11    InlineData  December   12   public void Test string monthName  int expected        var actual   monthName ToInt        Assert Equal expected  actual       I ll leave it as an exercise to the reader to create an overload where you can pass in an explicit CultureInfo

User · Answer

If you are using c  3 0  or above  you can use extenders

User · Answer

This code helps you     using System Globalization         string FullMonthName   CultureInfo CurrentCulture DateTimeFormat GetMonthName DateTime UtcNow Month     GetMonthName Method - it returns string     If you want to get a month as an integer  then simply use -   DateTime dt  DateTime UtcNow  int month  dt Month    I hope  it helps you     Thanks

User · Answer

DateTime ParseExact monthName   MMMM   CultureInfo CurrentCulture   Month  Although  for your purposes  you ll probably be better off just creating a Dictionary lt string  int gt  mapping the month s name to its value

[c#] How to parse a month name (string) to an integer for comparison in C#?

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