How to format a non plain date in Java?

Question

I have two dates as following that need to format them but I am receiving following exception. My main issue is with the th rd etc in the day part. I could not find any answer for this question. I checked all these links 1,2,3,4,5 I think I should use Regex but not sure how.

 10th Dec 2019 -> 2019-12-10 
 10th December 2019 -> 2019-12-10

Code

 String date1 = "10th Dec 2019";
 Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMMM YYYY").parse(date1);
 System.err.println(date);
 String date2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-dd").format(date);
 System.err.println(date2);

Exception

 Exception in thread "main" java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "10th Dec 2019"

This already has an answer. See this http://stackoverflow.com/a/6987802/1737819 — Developer Marius Žilėnas, Sep 01 '15 at 10:23

JB Nizet · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-01T10:28:33.033

5

Replace all the expected undesired sufiixes by an empty string, and then parse:

    String s = "10th Dec 2019";

    SimpleDateFormat fmt = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
    Date d = fmt.parse(s.replaceFirst("th|nd|st|rd", ""));
    System.out.println("d = " + d);

edited Sep 01 '15 at 10:28

answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:24

JB Nizet

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How about if I use Regex? – Jack Sep 01 '15 at 10:24
My answer does use a regex. replaceFirst() takes a regex and replaces the first the matching substring by the second argument. – JB Nizet Sep 01 '15 at 10:25
How about parsing date **10st August 2019** ? – Developer Marius Žilėnas Sep 01 '15 at 10:30

npinti · Answer 2 · 2015-09-01T11:42:01.233

You could remove the quantifier first, then parse the date as usual.

Something like this would work:

String[] input = {     "10th Dec 2019",
                       "10th December 2019",
                       "1st December 2019",
                       "3rd December 2019"
                 };

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMMM yyyy");
DateFormat result = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
for(String s : input) {
    s = s.replaceAll("^(\\d+).{2}", "$1");  //The .{2} will match any two characters, which should be the th, st, nd and rd.
    System.out.println(result.format(df.parse(s)));
}

Yields:

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:21

You can escape explicit literals in date formats by putting them in single quotes within the pattern like that:

Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd'th' MMMM YYYY").parse(date1);.

However, that solution does not support wildcards, which I assume you'd need for "st" and "nd" suffixes. So I suggest you do some preprocessing of the input based on a regex to drop the "st/nd/th" suffix.

Jens · Answer 4 · 2015-09-01T10:24:52.567

0

For your String you can use:

Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd'th' MMMM YYYY").parse(date1);

edited Sep 01 '15 at 10:24

answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:22

Jens

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The issue is with 1st, 12th etc – Jack Sep 01 '15 at 10:23
@Jack `12th` is not an issueand 1st is not requested in your question. you should add it. – Jens Sep 01 '15 at 10:24

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:56

0

In Java 7, it's concidered best practice to use Joda time for handling dates. So I recommend you look into it. The api is way easier to use then Date. (Parsing too)

When you later migrate to Java 8, the java.time (JSR-310) package is based on Joda Time, so you will have an easy time migrating.

answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:56

tomaj

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Actually, java.time is inspired by Joda-Time but not based on it. Concepts are largely the same but your code may differ significantly. Best to start with java.time if on Java 8 or later. – Basil Bourque Sep 01 '15 at 15:17
Can you expand your answer to show some example code to more directly address the Question? – Basil Bourque Sep 01 '15 at 15:20

Pramod Karandikar · Answer 6 · 2015-09-01T10:27:15.077

-1

You can try this way:

String suffix = getSuffix(inputDate.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH));
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(" d'" + suffix + "' MMMM yyyy");
return dateFormat.format(currentCalDate.getTime());

// getSuffix
private String getSuffix(int inputDay) {
    if (day >= 11 && day <= 13) {
        return "th";
    }
    switch (day % 10) {
        case 1:
            return "st";
        case 2:
            return "nd";
        case 3:
            return "rd";
        default:
            return "th";
    }
}

edited Sep 01 '15 at 10:27

answered Sep 01 '15 at 10:24

Pramod Karandikar

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The suffix can just be replaced instead of adding the suffix in the DateFormat. That's easier and cleaner for this problem. – Karthik R Sep 01 '15 at 10:27

How to format a non plain date in Java?

6 Answers6