How do I parse a json/javascript date with timezone to C# DateTime?

Question

How do I parse this date format:

/Date(1402537043438+1000)/

to a C# DateTime?

I'm limited to .Net 3.5 and can't use a nuget package like Newtonsoft.

• CodingIntrigue: JavaScriptSerializer.Deserialize should be able to read that format
• Ev.: I get an excpetion "Invalid JSON primitive: ."

Answer 1

JavaScriptSerializer (an external assembly, of sorts, but not a NuGet requirement) can parse those dates, but they need to have a \ at the start and end of the string, e.g.:

var date = "/Date(1402537043438+1000)/";
var parsedDate = new JavaScriptSerializer().Deserialize<DateTime>("\"" + date.Replace("/", "\\/") + "\"");

• Ev.: Thanks for the fast reply. I'm more than happy to use use Framework stuff, but my string isn't quite in that format. Your's has some characters that are lacking in mine, specifically the leading escaped quotes and the additional backslashes
• CodingIntrigue: @Ev. Yup, that's right. Your date is what I have in the date variable. What I'm doing is modifying that variable to make it a valid JSON format for the serializer
• Ev.: I have just seen your update and I expect it to work. Seems kind of wacky that that string isn't more easily converted. Do you think that suggests my data is bad?
• CodingIntrigue: Your data is fine, this is the format MS uses to represent a Date in JSON (it's actually the format the JavaScriptSerializer will serialize to) because JSON doesn't actually specify a way to handle Dates. It seems wacky, because it technically is just a wacky workaround to a limitation of the JSON format :)