Supporting multiple custom DateTime formats when deserializing with Json.Net

Question

I want to support deserializing more than one custom DateTime format with the Newtonsoft Json deserializer, so I am using IsoDateTimeConverter:

var serializeSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
serializeSettings.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter() { DateTimeFormat = "yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ" });

As the DateTimeFormat property does not accept an array of formats, I tried the following to support multiple custom date formats:

var serializeSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
serializeSettings.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter() { DateTimeFormat = "yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ" });
serializeSettings.Converters.Add(new IsoDateTimeConverter() { DateTimeFormat = "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm" });

However the above code's result is supporting deserializing only the first format.

How can I achieve supporting multiple custom DateTime formats?

Answer 1

If you want to handle multiple possible date formats, you will need to make a custom JsonConverter which can accept multiple format strings and try them all until one succeeds. Here is a simple example:

class MultiFormatDateConverter : JsonConverter
{
    public List<string> DateTimeFormats { get; set; }
    
    public override bool CanConvert(Type objectType)
    {
        return objectType == typeof(DateTime) || objectType == typeof(DateTime?);
    }
    
    public override object ReadJson(JsonReader reader, Type objectType, object existingValue, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        string dateString = (string)reader.Value;
        if (dateString == null) 
        {
            if (objectType == typeof(DateTime?))
                return null;
                
            throw new JsonException("Unable to parse null as a date.");
        }
        DateTime date;
        foreach (string format in DateTimeFormats)
        {
            // adjust this as necessary to fit your needs
            if (DateTime.TryParseExact(dateString, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out date))
                return date;
        }
        throw new JsonException("Unable to parse \"" + dateString + "\" as a date.");
    }
    
    public override bool CanWrite
    {
        get { return false; }
    }
    
    public override void WriteJson(JsonWriter writer, object value, JsonSerializer serializer)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

Then you can add it to your settings like this:

var settings = new JsonSerializerSettings();
settings.DateParseHandling = DateParseHandling.None;
settings.Converters.Add(new MultiFormatDateConverter 
{ 
    DateTimeFormats = new List<string> { "yyyyMMddTHHmmssZ", "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm" } 
});

Fiddle: https://dotnetfiddle.net/vOpMEY