c# - How to determine if a string contains a specific date in any format? -

i have object property of type date , property b of type string. requirement property b may not contain string representation of property a.

right have simplistic approach of validating:

public function validate() boolean     if b.contains(a.tostring("[format1]", cultureinfo....)       return false     end if      if b.contains(a.tostring("[format2]", cultureinfo...)        return false     end if      'etc      return true  end function 

but in approach feels wrong. date.tryparse won't work because b may have more in a.

is there approach let me validate b without typing out every possible datetime format (in variety of cultures) a?

i don't care of solution vb.net or c#.

clarification: there few format restrictions on property b. won't allow typical date delimiters of forward slash or dot or space. expect see date in mmddyyyy , ddmmyyyy or monddyyyy, etc. i'm not worried except month, day, , year.

i keep list of possible formats , iterate through it, though concern might overlook potential format way.

additional clarification property date value, not string. format not determined user - determined validation process. in following examples, b should not validate.

a = date(1962, 01, 22)  b = 01221962mynewstring or b = mystring19620122value or b = jan221962mystring etc. 

there many possibilities string representation need exclude. although suppose, don't need exclude "the22ofjanuary1962".

i use regular expressions - same issue exists. have think of every possible string representation , check it. hoping in .net framework existed , use it. sounds no such luck.

answer: marked blam's post answer. got me close, once added regular expression. iterate through possible cultures. go through relevant standard datetime formats (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az4se3k1(v=vs.110).aspx), strip non alphanumberic characters, , compare.

not saying caught everything, unit tests pass caught ones think of today. , add custom datetime formats later if need becomes apparent.

here's solution.

dim allcultures cultureinfo()  allcultures = cultureinfo.getcultures(culturetypes.allcultures) dim rgx = new regex("[^a-za-z0-9]")  each ci cultureinfo in allcultures  if b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("d", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("d", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("m", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("s", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("u", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("y", ci), "")) or _                 b.contains(rgx.replace(me.a.tostring("g", ci), ""))                 return false      end if next  return true 

could enumerate cultures

culturetypes[] mostculturetypes = new culturetypes[] {             culturetypes.neutralcultures,              culturetypes.specificcultures,              culturetypes.installedwin32cultures,              culturetypes.usercustomculture,              culturetypes.replacementcultures,              }; cultureinfo[] allcultures; datetime dt = new datetime(1962, 01, 22);  // , enumerate cultures. allcultures = cultureinfo.getcultures(culturetypes.allcultures); foreach (cultureinfo ci in allcultures) {     // display name of each culture.     console.writeline("culture: {0}", ci.name);     thread.currentthread.currentculture = ci;     console.writeline("displaying short date {0} culture:",                         thread.currentthread.currentculture.name);     console.writeline("   {0} (short date string)",                         dt.toshortdatestring());     console.writeline(); } 

even appears not allowing spaces need remove spaces.
not allowing delimiters need remove them
state data format looking specific date formats.
don't want identify date formats because might miss one.