Date value wrongly formatted

Question

I am trying to convert a String DateTime value which is present in a flat file as a Date object after parsing the flat file in my code.

I have

Answer 1

Because you are not formatting a date. Look at the example

  public static void main(String[] args){
    Locale currentLocale = Locale.US;
    DateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zz yyyy", currentLocale);
    Date date = null;
    Date today;
    try {
      today = new Date();
      String result = f.format(today);
      System.out.println("Locale: " + currentLocale.toString());
      System.out.println("Result: " + result);
      date = f.parse("Tue Aug 23 20:00:03 PDT 2011");
    } catch (ParseException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();  
    }
    System.out.println("---date----" + f.format(date));
  }

will output

Locale: en_US
Result: Tue Sep 25 19:12:38 EEST 2012
---date----Tue Aug 23 20:00:03 PDT 2011

Now, you have a bit modified code

  public static void main(String[] args){
    Locale currentLocale = Locale.US;
    DateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zz yyyy", currentLocale);
    DateFormat f2 = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zz yyyy", currentLocale);
    Date date = null;
    Date today;
    try {
      today = new Date();
      String result = f.format(today);
      System.out.println("Locale: " + currentLocale.toString());
      System.out.println("Result: " + result);
      date = f.parse("Tue Aug 23 20:00:03 PDT 2011");
      System.out.println("---date----" + f.format(date));
      System.out.println("---date----" + f2.format(date));

    } catch (ParseException e) {
      e.printStackTrace();
    }
  }

which outputs to

Locale: en_US
Result: Tue Sep 25 20:42:10 EEST 2012
---date----Tue Aug 23 20:00:03 PDT 2011
---date----Wed Aug 24 06:00:03 EEST 2011  

seems that SimpleDateFormat don't care about timezone even if 'z' pattern is specified. It is setting the timezone when it parses the input. That's how I can describe that a strange behavior. Then use of 'z' pattern seems obsolete and lead to unpredictable results.

so setting the TimeZone will fix the issue

f2.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles"));