Ever needed to see if a string contained a date or int?  In .NET 1.1, about the only way to do this is to use DateTime.Parse() and see if it throws an exception.  That's a bad time.
 
Now thanks to TryParse(), you can check and see if the input is valid, before parsing.  This prevents the need for using a try/catch block every time you use the parse method.
 
The syntax is kind of wierd so this method can be called in two ways:
 
Method 1:
string dateTimeString = "12/23/2004 09:00 AM";
DateTime myDateTime;
 
// returns true if dateTimeString is valid
if (DateTime.TryParse(dateTimeString, myDateTime))
    myDateTime = DateTime.Parse(dateTimeString);
 
You can also get the DateTime directly from an output parameter.
Method 2:
 
string dateTimeString = "12/23/2004 09:00 AM";
DateTime myDateTime;
 
DateTime.TryParse(dateTimeString, out myDateTime);
 
It can also be used for ints, bytes, chars, doubles, bools, etc. 
 
i.e.:
int32.TryParse(intString, myInt);
bool.TryParse(boolString, myBool);
 
It's a simple feature, but I think it will prove to be useful in the future.
 
More information can be found here:
ms-help://MS.VSCC.v80/MS.MSDNQTR.v80.en/MS.MSDN.v80/MS.VisualStudio.v80.en/cpref/html/M_System_DateTime_TryParse_2_c11ce641.htm

Read the complete post at http://www.dotnettipoftheday.com/blog.aspx?id=225