How to convert a String to a Date object for hours, minutes, and seconds

Question

I am trying to convert a user-inputted String into hours, minutes, and seconds stored inside a Date object. Some code was borrowed from StackOverflow that uses a SimpleDateFormat object to parse the user input, but when it tries I get a ParseException.

System.out.println("Enter the start time of the event(hh:mm:ss): ");
String input = sc.next();
SimpleDateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("kk-mm-ss");
Date start = new Date();
try {
    start = f.parse(input);
} catch (ParseException e) {
   System.out.println("ERROR: Failed to parse start time.");
   e.printStackTrace();
}

Exception

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "01:02:03"
at java.text.DateFormat.parse(Unknown Source)
at Main.createDialog(Main.java:78)
at Main.displayMenu(Main.java:44)
at Main.main(Main.java:26)

possible duplicate of [how to convert java string to Date object](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6510724/how-to-convert-java-string-to-date-object) — Kick Buttowski, Oct 06 '14 at 02:57
Kick Buttowski, the focus of the question was on the formatting of SimpleDateFormat's parameter. @SotiriosDelimanolis kk represents hours (1-24), mm is minutes, and ss is seconds. The documentation is here: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html — clever_trevor, Oct 06 '14 at 03:02

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 06 '14 at 02:57

7

Take a look at your format compared to what is been entered...

kk-mm-ss
01:02:03

See the difference? Your format is expecting -, but you're providing :

Change kk-mm-ss to kk:mm:ss

answered Oct 06 '14 at 02:57

MadProgrammer

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How to convert a String to a Date object for hours, minutes, and seconds

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