Unparseable date: "2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00"

Question

Following code throws the exception when try to parse from the string (2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00):

image.setLastUpdated(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz")
    .parse(imageElement.getAttribute("lastUpdate")))

I have also tried the following format:

image.setLastUpdated(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ")
    .parse(imageElement.getAttribute("lastUpdate")));

But I get the same exception:

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00"
at java.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:357)
at com.discavo.ImportManagerGiata.parseImageXML(ImportManagerGiata.java:204)

Answer 1

You need X as the specifier for the UTC offset as it's in ISO-8601 format, as per the SimpleDateFormat documentation.

new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssX")

Answer 2

java.time

The java.util Date-Time API and their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat are outdated and error-prone. It is recommended to stop using them completely and switch to the modern Date-Time API^*.

Also, quoted below is a notice from the home page of Joda-Time:

Note that from Java SE 8 onwards, users are asked to migrate to java.time (JSR-310) - a core part of the JDK which replaces this project.

Solution using java.time, the modern Date-Time API:

The modern Date-Time API is based on ISO 8601 and does not require using a DateTimeFormatter object explicitly as long as the Date-Time string conforms to the ISO 8601 standards. Your Date-Time string conforms to the ISO 8601 format.

Demo:

import java.time.Instant;
import java.time.OffsetDateTime;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        OffsetDateTime odt = OffsetDateTime.parse("2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00");
        System.out.println(odt);

        // ########### In case you need Instant ###########
        Instant instant = odt.toInstant();
        System.out.println(instant);
        
        // Java-12 onwards, you can parse the ISO-8601 compliant Date-Time with timezone
        // information directly into Instant
        instant = Instant.parse("2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00");
        System.out.println(instant);
    }
}

Output:

2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00
2011-12-08T01:01:02Z
2011-12-08T01:01:02Z

ONLINE DEMO

An Instant represents an instantaneous point on the timeline in UTC. The Z in the output is the timezone designator for a zero-timezone offset. It stands for Zulu and specifies the Etc/UTC timezone (which has the timezone offset of +00:00 hours).

Note: For any reason, if you need to convert this object of Instant to an object of java.util.Date, you can do so as follows:

Date date = Date.from(instant);

Learn more about the modern Date-Time API from Trail: Date Time.

---

^{* For any reason, if you have to stick to Java 6 or Java 7, you can use ThreeTen-Backport which backports most of the java.time functionality to Java 6 & 7. If you are working for an Android project and your Android API level is still not compliant with Java-8, check Java 8+ APIs available through desugaring and How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project.}

Answer 3

The answer by Jon Skeet is correct. But FYI…

No problem in Joda-Time

The problem presented by this question does not exist if using Joda-Time rather than the mess that is the java.util.Date/Calendar classes bundled with Java.

Joda-Time 2.3 has a variety of built-in parsers, so no need to specify a format in this case. Use methods on the ISODateTimeFormat class to retrieve a variety of formatters designed to parse variations of ISO 8601 formatted strings.

The question fails to account for time zone. So I am showing all three possibilities:

• You want the time converted to a specific time zone.
  Denver in this example.
• You want the time adjusted to UTC, for no time offset.
  Common for storage or further date-time work.
• You want to preserve this date-time with its offset.
  Not usually a good idea, as you have neither the benefit of UTC (no offset and no need to worry about Daylight Saving Time DST or other issues), nor the benefit of a named time zone with rules to handle DST or other issues.

For Desired Time Zone

// For desired time zone. Arbitrarily using 'Denver' as named time zone for this example.
DateTimeZone denverTimeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Denver" );
org.joda.time.DateTime dateTimeInDenver = org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeNoMillis().withZone(denverTimeZone).parseDateTime( "2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00" );
System.out.println( "dateTimeInDenver: " + dateTimeInDenver );

When run…

dateTimeInDenver: 2011-12-07T18:01:02.000-07:00

For UTC

// For UTC (no offset).
org.joda.time.DateTime dateTimeInUTC = org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeNoMillis().withZoneUTC().parseDateTime( "2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00" );
System.out.println( dateTimeInUTC );

When run…

2011-12-08T01:01:02.000Z

For Offset As Parsed

// For offset as parsed. 
// Least beneficial, as no rules for Daylight Saving Time (DST) or other anomalies can be applied.
org.joda.time.DateTime dateTimeWithOffsetParsed = org.joda.time.format.ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeNoMillis().withOffsetParsed().parseDateTime( "2011-12-08T02:01:02+01:00" );
System.out.println( "dateTimeWithOffsetParsed: " + dateTimeWithOffsetParsed );

When run…

dateTimeWithOffsetParsed: 2011-12-08T02:01:02.000+01:00