VB.NET - any string to date conversion
DateTime myDate =
    DateTime.ParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531",
                        "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss,fff",
                        System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)

Dim format() As String = {"dd-MM-yy", "dd/MM/yy"}

Dim myDate As DateTime = DateTime.ParseExact("2009-05-08 14:40:52,531",format,
                      System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))