Why does my date parsing return a weird date?

Question

Here is the code I am using:

String string = "08/07/2013".replace('/', '-');
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").parse(string);

Why does date return: "Wen Jan 3 00:00:00 EST 14"? It is not at all the date format I told it to use.

Edit: I need this format because a database I am using requires this format.

@TheNewIdiot What do you mean? string is equal to "08-07-2013" — jacen.garriss, Aug 07 '13 at 13:37
The string has format `MM-dd-yyyy`(or maybe `dd-MM-yyyy`) not `yyyy-MM-dd` as you wrote in your code. — Bakuriu, Aug 07 '13 at 13:37
@jacen.garriss Because this is an extremely simple question. Did you even read the javadoc for SimpleDateFormat? — Kayaman, Aug 07 '13 at 13:56
@Kayaman I never understand the javadoc. Besides that, if this is a simple question then it is free rep for little work. what is bad about that? And it is there for the next person with the same problem. — jacen.garriss, Aug 07 '13 at 14:10
@jacen.garriss If you never understand the javadoc, how will you ever become a programmer? And there are people with real problems who would deserve help, not lazy people who can't be bothered to use their own brains. — Kayaman, Aug 07 '13 at 14:46

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

4

The format you use to parse the date string, does not match it. You are using yyyy for 08.

Use the following format:

new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy")

and why at all are you replacing the / with -? You can build the pattern for your original string only:

String string = "08/07/2013"
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(string);

and if you want your date string in yyyy-MM-dd format, then you can format the date using DateFormat#format(Date) method:

String formattedDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").format(date);

See also:

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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answered Aug 07 '13 at 13:38

Rohit Jain

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I can't I need the format in this format so I can pass it to a database that uses this format. – jacen.garriss Aug 07 '13 at 13:38
@jacen.garriss. Then you can re-format the date using the required format. – Rohit Jain Aug 07 '13 at 13:39
I display to the user in the format 08/07/2013 but i want to turn it into the other format for uses in the database. – jacen.garriss Aug 07 '13 at 13:40

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 07 '13 at 14:14

When you are specifying some Simple Date format using string e.g. "yyyy-MM-dd" , you have to provide your date in same format to get a date object eg. "1991-07-24" .

String mydate = "1991/07/24";
Date formattedDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd").parse(mydate);

now if you want to convert it in any other format, you can do that by FORMATTING this date object into that perticular format..

String dateInOtherFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy").format(formatteddate);

and the output of dateInOtherFormat will be ... 24-JUL-1991 .

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 07 '13 at 14:07

Ok my sugestion is stupid but if you need this format try this

String[] arr = "08/07/2013".split("/");
String newString = arr[2]+"-"+arr[1]+"-"arr[0];
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").parse(newString);

NOTE If your original strin is in format "MM/dd/YYYY use this:

String newString = arr[2]+"-"+arr[0]+"-"arr[1];

Why does my date parsing return a weird date?

3 Answers3