+    // what fields have we found?
+    bool haveWDay = FALSE,
+         haveYDay = FALSE,
+         haveDay = FALSE,
+         haveMon = FALSE,
+         haveYear = FALSE,
+         haveHour = FALSE,
+         haveMin = FALSE,
+         haveSec = FALSE;
+
+    bool hourIsIn12hFormat = FALSE, // or in 24h one?
+         isPM = FALSE;              // AM by default
+
+    // and the value of the items we have (init them to get rid of warnings)
+    wxDateTime_t sec = 0,
+                 min = 0,
+                 hour = 0;
+    WeekDay wday = Inv_WeekDay;
+    wxDateTime_t yday = 0,
+                 mday = 0;
+    wxDateTime::Month mon = Inv_Month;
+    int year = 0;
+
+    const wxChar *input = date;
+    for ( const wxChar *fmt = format; *fmt; fmt++ )
+    {
+        if ( *fmt != _T('%') )
+        {
+            if ( wxIsspace(*fmt) )
+            {
+                // a white space in the format string matches 0 or more white
+                // spaces in the input
+                while ( wxIsspace(*input) )
+                {
+                    input++;
+                }
+            }
+            else // !space
+            {
+                // any other character (not whitespace, not '%') must be
+                // matched by itself in the input
+                if ( *input++ != *fmt )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+            }
+
+            // done with this format char
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        // start of a format specification
+        switch ( *++fmt )
+        {
+            case _T('a'):       // a weekday name
+            case _T('A'):
+                {
+                    int flag = *fmt == _T('a') ? Name_Abbr : Name_Full;
+                    wday = GetWeekDayFromName(GetAlphaToken(input), flag);
+                    if ( wday == Inv_WeekDay )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+                }
+                haveWDay = TRUE;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('b'):       // a month name
+            case _T('B'):
+                {
+                    int flag = *fmt == _T('b') ? Name_Abbr : Name_Full;
+                    mon = GetMonthFromName(GetAlphaToken(input), flag);
+                    if ( mon == Inv_Month )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+                }
+                haveMon = TRUE;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('c'):       // locale default date and time  representation
+                {
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+
+                    // this is the format which corresponds to ctime() output
+                    // and strptime("%c") should parse it, so try it first
+                    static const wxChar *fmtCtime = _T("%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Y");
+
+                    const wxChar *result = dt.ParseFormat(input, fmtCtime);
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        result = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%x %X"));
+                    }
+
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        result = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%X %x"));
+                    }
+
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        // we've tried everything and still no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    input = result;
+                }
+                break;
+
+            case _T('d'):       // day of a month (01-31)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (num > 31) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                // we can't check whether the day range is correct yet, will
+                // do it later - assume ok for now
+                haveDay = TRUE;
+                mday = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+                
+            case _T('H'):       // hour in 24h format (00-23)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (num > 23) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveHour = TRUE;
+                hour = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('I'):       // hour in 12h format (01-12)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || !num || (num > 12) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveHour = TRUE;
+                hourIsIn12hFormat = TRUE;
+                hour = num % 12;        // 12 should be 0
+                break;
+
+            case _T('j'):       // day of the year
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || !num || (num > 366) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveYDay = TRUE;
+                yday = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('m'):       // month as a number (01-12)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || !num || (num > 12) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveMon = TRUE;
+                mon = (Month)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('M'):       // minute as a decimal number (00-59)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (num > 59) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveMin = TRUE;
+                min = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('p'):       // AM or PM string
+                {
+                    wxString am, pm, token = GetAlphaToken(input);
+
+                    GetAmPmStrings(&am, &pm);
+                    if ( token.CmpNoCase(pm) == 0 )
+                    {
+                        isPM = TRUE;
+                    }
+                    else if ( token.CmpNoCase(am) != 0 )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+                }
+                break;
+
+            case _T('r'):       // time as %I:%M:%S %p
+                {
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+                    input = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%I:%M:%S %p"));
+                    if ( !input )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    haveHour = haveMin = haveSec = TRUE;
+
+                    Tm tm = dt.GetTm();
+                    hour = tm.hour;
+                    min = tm.min;
+                    sec = tm.sec;
+                }
+                break;
+
+            case _T('R'):       // time as %H:%M
+                {
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+                    input = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%H:%M"));
+                    if ( !input )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    haveHour = haveMin = TRUE;
+
+                    Tm tm = dt.GetTm();
+                    hour = tm.hour;
+                    min = tm.min;
+                }
+
+            case _T('S'):       // second as a decimal number (00-61)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (num > 61) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveSec = TRUE;
+                sec = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('T'):       // time as %H:%M:%S
+                {
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+                    input = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%H:%M:%S"));
+                    if ( !input )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    haveHour = haveMin = haveSec = TRUE;
+
+                    Tm tm = dt.GetTm();
+                    hour = tm.hour;
+                    min = tm.min;
+                    sec = tm.sec;
+                }
+
+            case _T('w'):       // weekday as a number (0-6), Sunday = 0
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (wday > 6) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveWDay = TRUE;
+                wday = (WeekDay)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('x'):       // locale default date representation
+#ifdef HAVE_STRPTIME
+                // try using strptime() - it may fail even if the input is
+                // correct but the date is out of range, so we will fall back
+                // to our generic code anyhow (FIXME !Unicode friendly)
+                {
+                    struct tm tm;
+                    const wxChar *result = strptime(input, "%x", &tm);
+                    if ( result )
+                    {
+                        input = result;
+
+                        haveDay = haveMon = haveYear = TRUE;
+
+                        year = 1900 + tm.tm_year;
+                        mon = (Month)tm.tm_mon;
+                        mday = tm.tm_mday;
+
+                        break;
+                    }
+                }
+#endif // HAVE_STRPTIME
+
+                // TODO query the LOCALE_IDATE setting under Win32
+                {
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+
+                    wxString fmtDate;
+                    if ( IsWestEuropeanCountry(GetCountry()) ||
+                         GetCountry() == Russia )
+                    {
+                        fmtDate = _T("%d/%m/%y");
+                    }
+                    else // assume USA
+                    {
+                        fmtDate = _T("%m/%d/%y");
+                    }
+
+                    const wxChar *result = dt.ParseFormat(input, fmtDate);
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        // bad luck
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    Tm tm = dt.GetTm();
+
+                    haveDay = haveMon = haveYear = TRUE;
+
+                    year = tm.year;
+                    mon = tm.mon;
+                    mday = tm.mday;
+
+                    input = result;
+                }
+
+                break;
+
+            case _T('X'):       // locale default time representation
+#ifdef HAVE_STRPTIME
+                {
+                    // use strptime() to do it for us (FIXME !Unicode friendly)
+                    struct tm tm;
+                    input = strptime(input, "%X", &tm);
+                    if ( !input )
+                    {
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    haveHour = haveMin = haveSec = TRUE;
+
+                    hour = tm.tm_hour;
+                    min = tm.tm_min;
+                    sec = tm.tm_sec;
+                }
+#else // !HAVE_STRPTIME
+                // TODO under Win32 we can query the LOCALE_ITIME system
+                //      setting which says whether the default time format is
+                //      24 or 12 hour
+                {
+                    // try to parse what follows as "%H:%M:%S" and, if this
+                    // fails, as "%I:%M:%S %p" - this should catch the most
+                    // common cases
+                    wxDateTime dt;
+
+                    const wxChar *result = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%T"));
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        result = dt.ParseFormat(input, _T("%r"));
+                    }
+
+                    if ( !result )
+                    {
+                        // no match
+                        return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                    }
+
+                    haveHour = haveMin = haveSec = TRUE;
+
+                    Tm tm = dt.GetTm();
+                    hour = tm.hour;
+                    min = tm.min;
+                    sec = tm.sec;
+
+                    input = result;
+                }
+#endif // HAVE_STRPTIME/!HAVE_STRPTIME
+                break;
+
+            case _T('y'):       // year without century (00-99)
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || (num > 99) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveYear = TRUE;
+                year = 1900 + num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('Y'):       // year with century
+                if ( !GetNumericToken(input, &num) || !num || (num > 366) )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+
+                haveYDay = TRUE;
+                yday = (wxDateTime_t)num;
+                break;
+
+            case _T('Z'):       // timezone name
+                wxFAIL_MSG(_T("TODO"));
+                break;
+
+            case _T('%'):       // a percent sign
+                if ( *input++ != _T('%') )
+                {
+                    // no match
+                    return (wxChar *)NULL;
+                }
+                break;
+
+            case 0:             // the end of string
+                wxFAIL_MSG(_T("unexpected format end"));
+
+                // fall through
+
+            default:            // not a known format spec
+                return (wxChar *)NULL;
+        }
+    }
+
+    // format matched, try to construct a date from what we have now
+    Tm tmDef;
+    if ( dateDef.IsValid() )
+    {
+        // take this date as default
+        tmDef = dateDef.GetTm();
+    }
+    else if ( IsValid() )
+    {
+        // if this date is valid, don't change it
+        tmDef = GetTm();
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        // no default and this date is invalid - fall back to Today()
+        tmDef = Today().GetTm();
+    }
+
+    Tm tm = tmDef;
+
+    // set the date
+    if ( haveYear )
+    {
+        tm.year = year;
+    }
+
+    // TODO we don't check here that the values are consistent, if both year
+    //      day and month/day were found, we just ignore the year day and we
+    //      also always ignore the week day
+    if ( haveMon && haveDay )
+    {
+        tm.mon = mon;
+        tm.mday = mday;
+    }
+    else if ( haveYDay )
+    {
+        Tm tm2 = wxDateTime(1, Jan, tm.year).SetToYearDay(yday).GetTm();
+
+        tm.mon = tm2.mon;
+        tm.mday = tm2.mday;
+    }
+
+    // deal with AM/PM
+    if ( haveHour && hourIsIn12hFormat && isPM )
+    {
+        // translate to 24hour format
+        hour += 12;
+    }
+    //else: either already in 24h format or no translation needed
+
+    // set the time
+    if ( haveHour )
+    {
+        tm.hour = hour; 
+    }
+
+    if ( haveMin )
+    {
+        tm.min = min;
+    }
+
+    if ( haveSec )
+    {
+        tm.sec = sec;
+    }
+
+    Set(tm);
+
+    return input;