How to use offset time in Java Simple Date Format

Question

When I am running the below code to convert the time string to Java date, it is failing.

String s = "04/17/2017 06:46:53 -600";
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss Z");
Date value = format.parse(s);

Exception in thread "main" java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "04/17/2017 06:46:53 -600"
    at java.text.DateFormat.parse(Unknown Source)

What is the correct format string to be used to convert the date string to java date ?

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html#rfc822timezone — 1615903, Apr 20 '17 at 11:48
see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9541043/java-convert-string-to-date-in-with-time-zone-variable?rq=1 — , Apr 20 '17 at 11:48
@AxelH is correct. Doc: *RFC822TimeZone: Sign TwoDigitHours Minutes* — vikingsteve, Apr 20 '17 at 11:49
from the docs - https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html . AxelH is right — satya-j, Apr 20 '17 at 11:49
yes, Alex is right, I got the format wrong from external source. — kiran, Apr 20 '17 at 11:50
I've just add a small part in the answer too include every format possible. This might not be readable here (tell me if it isn't) but I doubt the java doc will died anytime ;) — AxelH, Apr 20 '17 at 11:56

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 20 '17 at 11:53

add -0600 instead -600 read link

import java.text.*;
import java.util.*;
class TestFormatDate {


public static void main(String arg[]) throws Exception{

String s = "04/17/2017 06:46:53 -0600";
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss Z");
Date value = format.parse(s);
System.out.println("value "+value); 
}
}

AxelH · Answer 2 · 2017-04-20T11:55:19.020

As the SimpleDateFormat time zone documentation explain :

RFC 822 time zone: For formatting, the RFC 822 4-digit time zone format is used:

RFC822TimeZone:
         Sign TwoDigitHours Minutes
 TwoDigitHours:
         Digit Digit

ISO 8601 Time zone: The number of pattern letters designates the format for both formatting and parsing as follows:

ISO8601TimeZone:
         OneLetterISO8601TimeZone
         TwoLetterISO8601TimeZone
         ThreeLetterISO8601TimeZone
    OneLetterISO8601TimeZone:
         Sign TwoDigitHours
         Z
    TwoLetterISO8601TimeZone:
         Sign TwoDigitHours Minutes
         Z
    ThreeLetterISO8601TimeZone:
         Sign TwoDigitHours : Minutes
         Z

Hours is always seen with two digits so you need to pass -0600 as a timezone or -06

The only way you can have a one digit hours is with :

General time zone: Time zones are interpreted as text if they have names. For time zones representing a GMT offset value, the following syntax is used:

GMTOffsetTimeZone:
         GMT Sign Hours : Minutes
 Sign: one of
         + -
 Hours:
         Digit
         Digit Digit
 Minutes:
         Digit Digit
 Digit: one of
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 20 '17 at 11:55

1

Try,

String s = "04/17/2017 06:46:53 -0600";

Please read this to check how to use "Z".

answered Apr 20 '17 at 11:55

ProgrammerBoy

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How to use offset time in Java Simple Date Format

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