tl;dr
LocalDate.parse( "2014-11-18" ).format( // Parse string as `LocalDate` object, then generate a string in a certain format.
DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDate( FormatStyle.MEDIUM )
.withLocale( Locale.US ) // Automatically localize to a locale’s human language and cultural norms.
) // Returns a String.
Details
The accepted Answer by Mureinik is correct, your formatting pattern used codes incorrectly.
Another issue is that you are interested in a date-only value, but you are using a date-with-time type.
Also, you are using troublesome old date-time classes that are now supplanted by the java.time classes.
java.time
Your YYYY-MM-DD format complies with ISO 8601 format. The java.time classes use those standard formats by default when parsing/generating strings. So no need to specify a formatting pattern.
LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse( "2014-11-18" ) ;
To generate a string in other formats, use the DateTimeFormatter
or DateTimeFormatterBuilder
classes.
You could specify a hard-coded formatting pattern. But better to soft-code by letting java.time automatically localize. To localize, specify:
FormatStyle
to determine how long or abbreviated should the string be.
Locale
to determine (a) the human language for translation of name of day, name of month, and such, and (b) the cultural norms deciding issues of abbreviation, capitalization, punctuation, separators, and such.
Example:
Locale l = Locale.US ; // Or Locale.CANADA_FRENCH, Locale.ITALY, etc.
DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDate( FormatStyle.MEDIUM ).withLocale( l );
String output = zdt.format( f );
Nov 18, 2014
About java.time
The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date
, Calendar
, & SimpleDateFormat
.
The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.
To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.
With a JDBC driver complying with JDBC 4.2 or later, you may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. No need for strings or java.sql.* classes.
Where to obtain the java.time classes?
The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval
, YearWeek
, YearQuarter
, and more.