Why am I parsing this date time String incorrectly using Joda time in Java?

Question

I'm trying to use Joda time to parse a String date time I get from an API response to a long (or Joda DateTime object) so I can store it in a database.

2018-01-13T16:45:33.416400+00:00

Right now what I have is:

DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyy-MM-dd?HH:mm:ss.??????+??:??");

The parts that have question marks in the pattern I am not sure what to put in. Any ideas?

I don't think Joda supports microsecond precision. Other than that, you can use the default parser, e.g., `new DateTime("2018-01-13T16:45:33.416400+00:00")`. If you specifically need a `DateTimeFormatter`, you can use `ISODateTimeFormat.dateTimeParser()`. — shmosel, Jan 15 '18 at 03:03

Basil Bourque · Answer 1 · 2018-01-15T05:48:28.853

tl;dr

java.time.OffsetDateTime.parse( “2018-01-13T16:45:33.416400+00:00” )

Microseconds

Your input string represents microseconds. Joda-Time is limited to milliseconds. So, square peg, round hole.

java.time

Use the replacement for Joda-Time, the java.time classes.

`OffsetDateTime`

The java.time classes such as OffsetDateTime have nanosecond resolution, for up to 9 digits of decimal fraction, more than enough for your microseconds.

Your String happens to comply with the ISO 8601 standard for date-time string formats. The java.time classes use these standard formats by default when parsing/generating strings. So no need to specify a formatting pattern.

OffsetDateTime  odt = OffsetDateTime.parse( “2018-01-13T16:45:33.416400+00:00” ) ;

Database

With a driver supporting JDBC 4.2 or later, you can exchange java.time objects directly with your database.

myPreparedStatement.setObject( … , odt.toInstant() ) ;

…and…

Instant instant = myResultSet.getObject( … , Instant.class ) ;

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.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

Java SE 8, Java SE 9, and later
- Built-in.
- Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
- Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
- Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
Android
- Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
- For earlier Android, the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). See How to use ThreeTenABP….