title: Best way to get a date with .NET?
body: <p>I'm getting a string back from my page and I want to make sure it's a date. This is what I have so far (it works) and I just want to know if this is the "best" way to do it. I'm using .NET 4. </p>
  
  <pre><code>int TheMonth =0;
  int TheDay = 0;
  int TheYear = 0;
  DateTime NewDate;
  
  var TheIncomingParam = Request.Params.Get("__EVENTARGUMENT").ToString();
  
  char[] TheBreak = { '/' };
  string[] TheOutput = TheIncomingParam.Split(TheBreak);
  
  try { TheMonth = Convert.ToInt32(TheOutput[0]); }
  catch { }
  
  try { TheDay = Convert.ToInt32(TheOutput[1]); }
  catch { }
  
  try { TheYear = Convert.ToInt32(TheOutput[2]); }
  catch { }
  
  if (TheMonth!=0 &amp;&amp; TheDay!=0 &amp;&amp; TheYear!=0)
  {
          try { NewDate = new DateTime(TheYear, TheMonth, TheDay); }
          catch { var NoDate = true; }
  }
  </code></pre>