Issue with date parsing in russian locale

Question

I trying to parse following 11 Ноя 1980 г. string into date. This string is in russian formatting. I am using this code snippet to parse this.

Locale locale = new Locale("ru", "RU");
System.out.println(locale.toString());
DateFormat full = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG, locale);
try {
    Date date = full.parse("11 Ноя 1980 г.");
    System.out.println(date);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

While running this code as an normal java program outputs in parsed date object, but running this on android gives following exception.

11-20 03:52:45.545 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err: java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "11 Ноя 1980 г." (at offset 3)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at java.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:579)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at com.marcow.birthdaylist.TestActivity.onCreate(TestActivity.java:44)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.Activity.performCreate(Activity.java:6237)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.Instrumentation.callActivityOnCreate(Instrumentation.java:1107)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.ActivityThread.performLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2369)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.ActivityThread.handleLaunchActivity(ActivityThread.java:2476)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.ActivityThread.-wrap11(ActivityThread.java)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.ActivityThread$H.handleMessage(ActivityThread.java:1344)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:148)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:5417)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:726)
11-20 03:52:45.546 11241-11241/com.marcow.birthdaylist W/System.err:     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:616)

I don't understand why it's behaving differently on java and android.

I think DateFormat is from Android. That's why your result is different. Can you check your package where DateFormat is from? — kimkevin, Nov 20 '17 at 09:41
@kimkevin I have checked it. Both have same import statements. — Vishvendra Singh, Nov 20 '17 at 09:43
@VishvendraSingh can you try just like this '"11 Ноя 1980' ? — kimkevin, Nov 20 '17 at 09:45
Possible duplicate of [java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date:](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32373885/java-text-parseexception-unparseable-date) — kimkevin, Nov 20 '17 at 09:52
If you format the date you're expecting using `full`, what result do you get? — Jon Skeet, Nov 20 '17 at 09:55
I doubt that what's what you got when using `full` to format it - that looks more like what happens if you just call `Date.toString()`. If you call `full.format(date)`, what's the result? — Jon Skeet, Nov 20 '17 at 10:35
Right, so it sounds like that's expecting the *full* month name when you're only providing the *short* month name. It may be worth you creating the `SimpleDateFormat` with an explicit pattern, if you know the format of the strings you'll be passing in. — Jon Skeet, Nov 20 '17 at 11:16
According to what I hear, different Android devices may have different date format settings that may also cause differences in what format you get in Java. If it’s true, it’s annoying. As others have said, an explicit format pattern string may be the workaround. — Ole V.V., Nov 20 '17 at 16:22

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '17 at 14:41

Seems like short names of the months in Russian locale encodes in different ways in JDK and Adnroid SDK. This should help you:

    String testDate = "11 Ноя 1980 г.";
    String[] months = {"Янв", "Фев", "Мар", "Апр", "Мая", "Июн", "Июл", "Авг", "Сен", "Окт", "Ноя", "Дек"};
    Locale ru = new Locale("ru");
    DateFormatSymbols symbols = DateFormatSymbols.getInstance(ru);
    symbols.setMonths(months);
    SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy 'г.'", ru);
    format.setDateFormatSymbols(symbols);
    try {
        Log.d(TAG, "Date is: " + format.parse(testDate));
    } catch (Exception e) {
        Log.e(TAG, "Error while parsing", e);
    }

I highly recommend to test it on various versions of Android before using in production!

Sara Tirmizi · Answer 2 · 2017-11-20T09:51:55.743

1

You need to change this line of code:

DateFormat full = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG, locale);

to

 SimpleDateFormat full= new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss", locale);

Note: Here in format you can describe whatever format you want

Or try this link: Parsing string to date with timezone in national format

edited Nov 20 '17 at 09:51

answered Nov 20 '17 at 09:46

Sara Tirmizi

417
4
10

@VishvendraSingh I think the problem is in this `Date date = full.parse("11 Ноя 1980 г.");` have you tried different Russian date? – Sara Tirmizi Nov 20 '17 at 10:27
I have tried with few other dates too. it's the same. – Vishvendra Singh Nov 20 '17 at 10:30

Issue with date parsing in russian locale

2 Answers2