java SimpleDateFormat

Question

in Java, how to parse a date string that contains a letter that does not represent a pattern?

"2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00"

String date ="2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00";
String format = "yyyy-MM-ddTHH:mm:ssz";
new SimpleDateFormat(format).parse(date);

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal pattern character 'T'
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.compile(SimpleDateFormat.java:769)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.initialize(SimpleDateFormat.java:576)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.(SimpleDateFormat.java:501)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.(SimpleDateFormat.java:476)

Note that the question about parsing ISO 8601 dates is a frequently asked and answered question. Search for "Java ISO 8601 date" or something similar and you'll find many answers. — Jesper, Jun 20 '11 at 06:53
For example: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6279647/converting-a-string-to-date-almost-done/6280206#6280206 — Jesper, Jun 20 '11 at 06:55
For anyone reading this question today or tomorrow I recommend you don’t use `SimpleDateFormat`. That class is notoriously troublesome and long outdated. Instead just use `OffsetDateTime` from [java.time, the modern Java date and time API](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/datetime/). — Ole V.V., Feb 16 '21 at 21:21

score 21 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '11 at 03:08

21

You can try

String format = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz";

Reference : from Javadoc

Text can be quoted using single quotes (') to avoid interpretation.

answered Jun 20 '11 at 03:08

Bala R

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It works only if the string contains 'GMT'. Just like this : String date ="2007-11-02T14:46:03GMT+01:00"; – Hendra Jaya Jun 20 '11 at 03:19
@Hendra that is true or it has to be `String date ="2007-11-02T14:46:03+0100";` `SimpleDateTime` is is pretty limited in such situations an I guess if you(OP) don't have much control over the input, using libraries such as joda time would work out best. – Bala R Jun 20 '11 at 03:21

Brad Mace · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-20T06:24:49.130

5

The time you're trying to parse appears to be in ISO 8601 format. SimpleDateFormat unfortunately doesn't support all the same timezone specifiers as ISO 8601. If you want to be able to properly handle all the forms specified in the ISO, the best thing to do is use Joda time.

This example is straight out of the user guide:

DateTime dt = new DateTime("2004-12-13T21:39:45.618-08:00");

edited Jun 20 '11 at 06:24

answered Jun 20 '11 at 03:23

Brad Mace

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this doesn't work, +01:00 needs to be +0100 for joda to work. – user775187 Jun 20 '11 at 06:13
1

@user - you're right, the ISO version doesn't like colons. Good news is you can pass the version with colons straight to the `DateTime` constructor. – Brad Mace Jun 20 '11 at 06:26

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 16 '21 at 21:19

No formatter needed

It’s time to post the modern answer, the answer that uses java.time, the modern Java date and time API. Your format is ISO 8601, and the classes of java.time generally parse the most common ISO 8601 variants as their default, that is, without any explicit formatter.

    String date ="2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00";
    OffsetDateTime dateTime = OffsetDateTime.parse(date);
    System.out.println(dateTime);

Output is:

2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00

Yes, java.time also gives ISO 8601 format back from the toString methods, implicitly called when we print an object.

Enclose literal letters in single quotes

To answer the question as asked, you may enclose letters in single quotes to make DateTimeFormatter take them as literal letters rather than format specifiers. There would be no point whatsoever in doing the following in real code, but for the sake of demonstration:

    DateTimeFormatter isoFormatter
            = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX");
    String date ="2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00";
    OffsetDateTime dateTime = OffsetDateTime.parse(date, isoFormatter);

The result is the same as before.

Link

Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 26 '12 at 03:37

0

If you don't care about the time zone, you can use this method.

  public static Date convertToDate(String strDate) throws ParseException {
    Date date = null;
    if (strDate != null) {
      SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss");
      date = sdf.parse(strDate);
    }
    return date;
  }

I don't know if it's still useful for you, but I encounter with the same problem now, and after a little I come up with this.

answered Oct 26 '12 at 03:37

j2gl

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You need to care about the UTC offset or you will get incorrect results (more often than not). – Ole V.V. Feb 16 '21 at 21:08

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jun 20 '11 at 03:10

String testDate = "2007-11-02T14:46:03+01:00";
DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz");
Date date = formatter.parse(testDate);
System.out.println(date);

You can try similar to the above

You can use following link for reference

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jul 31 '22 at 14:05

0

Below format code works for me !

But the code converts the date : 20220722 to date : 22-July-2022

where tradeDate = 20220722

answered Jul 31 '22 at 14:05

Dhruv sahu

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Thanks for wanting to contribute. One, this is not what was asked. The question was about a datetime string having a `T` in it. Two, no one should use the old and very troublesome `SimpleDateFormat` class nor its friend the `Date` class. java.time, the modern Java date and time API, parses both your string and the one from the question without the programmer needing to fiddle with a format pattern string. See my answer. – Ole V.V. Jul 31 '22 at 14:28

java SimpleDateFormat

6 Answers6

No formatter needed

Enclose literal letters in single quotes

Link

Linked