Parsing "HH:mm:ss" and "H:m:s" times using DateTime.ParseExact()

I want to be able to parse the fol开发者_开发问答lowing times using ParseExact() function:

01:02:03
1:02:03
1:2:03
1:02:3
01:2:3
1:2:3

Is it possible, or do I need to do my own conversions so it work?

So far I can parse only all with leading 0 or all without leading zero. I can do it with 6 format strings but i think this is pretty stupid.

Using ParseExact with the "H:m:s" custom format string works perfectly for all the examples given in your question.

string[] test = { "01:02:03", "1:02:03", "1:2:03", "1:02:3", "01:2:3", "1:2:3" };

foreach (string s in test)
{
    DateTime d = DateTime.ParseExact(s, "H:m:s", null);
    Console.WriteLine(d);
}

Have you tried this? All strings parse without a problem in this sample code:

using System;

class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
        string[] dates = new string[] { "01:02:03", "1:02:03", "1:2:03", "1:02:3", "01:2:3", "1:2:3" };
        foreach (string date in dates) {
            DateTime dt = DateTime.ParseExact(date, "H:m:s", null);
            Console.WriteLine(dt);
        }
        Console.ReadLine();
    }
}

Output:

11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM
11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM
11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM
11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM
11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM
11/9/2009 1:02:03 AM

I think the purpose of ParseExact() requires an exact match of the format string. Is there a reason not to simply use the Parse() method instead?

Why not just use Parse? As its name implies, ParseExact is used when you have exactly one input format and all others must be rejected.