Date format parsing in android from April 18 2016 10:41 AM to 04/18/2016 10:41

Question

I am trying to parse April 18 2016 10:41 AM to 04/18/2016 10:41. Here is my code

private String dateFormat(String strCurrentDate) throws ParseException {

        SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("mmmm dd yyyy hh:mm Z");
        Date newDate = null;
        newDate = format.parse(strCurrentDate);
        format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm");
        String date = format.format(newDate);
        Log.d("DATE_FORMATE_TESTING", date);
        return date;

    }

But it gives the following errors

04-18 10:41:43.834 7526-7526/gps.clock.com W/System.err: java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "April 18 2016 01:41 PM" (at offset 0)
04-18 10:41:43.834 7526-7526/gps.clock.com W/System.err:     at java.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:579)
04-18 10:41:43.834 7526-7526/gps.clock.com W/System.err:     at gps.clock.com.MainActivity.dateFormat(MainActivity.java:441)
04-18 10:41:43.834 7526-7526/gps.clock.com W/System.err:     at gps.clock.com.MainActivity.access$500(MainActivity.java:70)
04-18 10:41:43.834 7526-7526/gps.clock.com W/System.err:     at gps.clock.com.MainActivity$1$4.onClick(MainActivity.java:303)

Can anyone tell me how should I fix it? Why it is showing Unparseable date. How should I parse it? Thanks in advance.

You have lowercase `m`s for the month in the first pattern. They should be uppercase. And the character for am/pm is `a`, not `Z`. Please refer to the [`SimpleDateFormat` docs](http://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html) — Mike M., Apr 18 '16 at 04:52
Possible duplicate of [incorrect conversion of String into date format](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13698165/incorrect-conversion-of-string-into-date-format) — Dawood ibn Kareem, Apr 18 '16 at 04:54
@MikeM. I tried with MMMM instead of mmmm. But still I a geting the same error. — anuradha, Apr 18 '16 at 04:58
@MikeM. no I didn't changed it. But it worked for me when I replaced Z with a. Can you please tell me what does it mean? — anuradha, Apr 18 '16 at 06:48
The `Z` character represents the time zone, which your date `String` doesn't have. It has am/pm, though, which is represented by the `a` character. Refer to the [`SimpleDateFormat` docs](http://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html) for the available pattern characters and their meanings. — Mike M., Apr 18 '16 at 06:53

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 18 '16 at 05:09

3

Try the following code

    String strCurrentDate = "April 18 2016 10:41 AM";
    SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd yyyy hh:mm a");
    Date newDate = null;
    try {
        newDate = format.parse(strCurrentDate);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm");
    String date = format.format(newDate);
    System.out.print(date);

answered Apr 18 '16 at 05:09

user1799171

567
1
3
15

yes this worked for me. I will accept this answer. Can you please tell me what is the difference between a and Z that is in the SimpleDateFormate("MMM dd yyyy hh:mm a")? – anuradha Apr 18 '16 at 06:47
'a' is used to represent AM or PM, where as 'Z' (Zulu time)represents TimeZone, So it wasn't able to parse. – user1799171 Apr 18 '16 at 07:23

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 04:56

1

I think you need to tweak your original format string.

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("mmmm dd yyyy hh:mm Z");

Should be

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM dd yyyy hh:mm a");

answered Apr 18 '16 at 04:56

Jesse Buss

833
6
13

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 18 '16 at 04:56

In java date formatting m and M both have different meaning. m is used to parse minutes while M is used to parse month.

In your example you are parsing month with lower case m and that causes error. As suggested by @Mike M. change your ms with upper case.

Date format parsing in android from April 18 2016 10:41 AM to 04/18/2016 10:41

3 Answers3