 <p>Use <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/9h21f14e.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><code>DateTime.TryParse</code></a> with the format string you want.</p> <p>If you can accept several formats then you'll need to call each in turn until you find the one that matches - which I assume is what you mean by "the tedious approach".</p>