Parse ZonedDateTime.now() with DateTimeFormatter in Java

Question

I am trying to parse the current timestamp with specific format but every try I keep getting a java.time.format.DateTimeParseException. My code:

ZonedDateTime.parse(
    ZonedDateTime.now().toString(),
    DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS")
            .withZone(ZoneId.of("UTC")) //I also tried ZoneId.systemDefault()
)

Result:

java.time.format.DateTimeParseException:
Text '2018-02-27T11:01:18.776+01:00[Europe/Berlin]' could not be parsed at index 2

The question is why I can't parse it in the desired format and how to achieve it?

P.S. I also saw this post and tried setting the ZoneId but it didn't help.

Try `ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("...."))` — Thiyagu, Feb 27 '18 at 10:31

Ole V.V. · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-27T14:07:30.900

To parse the result from ZonedDateTime.toString() back you don’t need an explicit formatter at all:

    System.out.println(ZonedDateTime.parse(
            ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kuala_Lumpur")).toString()));

This printed

2018-02-27T21:48:16.214832+08:00[Asia/Kuala_Lumpur]

The formatter from your question works nicely for formatting:

    System.out.println(ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kuala_Lumpur"))
            .format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS")));

This printed:

27.02.2018 21:48:16.237

Did you confuse the word usage? Parsing means analyzing a string in order to make sense of it, in this case converting it to a date-time object like ZonedDateTime. The opposite conversion is called formatting, converting the date-time object into a string in a specific format, typically for human readability or data interchange.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 27 '18 at 10:26

1

The DateTimeFormat

"dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS"

does not match with

'2018-02-27T11:01:18.776+01:00[Europe/Berlin]'

produced by

ZonedDateTime.now().toString()

answered Feb 27 '18 at 10:26

Mark Schäfer

925
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23

I know it doesn't. I thought formatter is used to format the non matching input to the desired output – Arthur Eirich Feb 27 '18 at 10:28
But you try to parse the String in a different format. – Mark Schäfer Feb 27 '18 at 10:30
2

ZonedDateTime.now().toString() produces a Date String in a default format which you try to parse afterwards with a different format. – Mark Schäfer Feb 27 '18 at 10:32

lwi · Answer 3 · 2018-02-27T10:40:15.510

0

This should work for converting the now() result String --> Date, as the right formatter is already in the JDK:

String inputStr = ZonedDateTime.now().toString();
ZonedDateTime parsed = ZonedDateTime.parse(inputStr, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME) 


System.out.println(parsed);

If you want to go the otheway around you convert the Date --> String via

 DateTimeFormatter pattern = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd.MM.yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS");

        String parsed = pattern.format(ZonedDateTime.now());
        System.out.println(parsed);

edited Feb 27 '18 at 10:40

answered Feb 27 '18 at 10:29

lwi

1,682
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It works but I don't want the timezone and offset to be displayed. I want the format I specified. – Arthur Eirich Feb 27 '18 at 10:31

Stefan Großmann · Answer 4 · 2018-08-22T12:56:02.033

0

You can directly use the format function of the ZonedDateTime. For example:

String dateString = ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME);

You can as well look at:

edited Aug 22 '18 at 12:56

answered Feb 27 '18 at 10:39

Stefan Großmann

866
9
20

Parse ZonedDateTime.now() with DateTimeFormatter in Java

4 Answers4