How to parse dates in multiple formats using SimpleDateFormat

Question

I am trying to parse some dates that are coming out of a document. It would appear users have entered these dates in a similar but not exact format.

here are the for

Answer 1

In Apache commons lang, DateUtils class we have a method called parseDate. We can use this for parsing the date.

Also another library Joda-time also have the method to parse the date.

Answer 2

What about just defining multiple patterns? They might come from a config file containing known patterns, hard coded it reads like:

List<SimpleDateFormat> knownPatterns = new ArrayList<SimpleDateFormat>();
knownPatterns.add(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'"));
knownPatterns.add(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm.ss'Z'"));
knownPatterns.add(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"));
knownPatterns.add(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd' 'HH:mm:ss"));
knownPatterns.add(new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX"));

for (SimpleDateFormat pattern : knownPatterns) {
    try {
        // Take a try
        return new Date(pattern.parse(candidate).getTime());

    } catch (ParseException pe) {
        // Loop on
    }
}
System.err.println("No known Date format found: " + candidate);
return null;

Answer 3

Implemented the same in scala, Please help urself with converting to Java, the core logic and functions used stays the same.

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
import org.apache.commons.lang.time.DateUtils

object MultiDataFormat {
  def main(args: Array[String]) {

val dates =Array("2015-10-31","26/12/2015","19-10-2016")

val possibleDateFormats:Array[String] = Array("yyyy-MM-dd","dd/MM/yyyy","dd-MM-yyyy")

val sdf =  new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd") //change it as per the requirement
  for (date<-dates) {
    val outputDate = DateUtils.parseDateStrictly(date, possibleDateFormats)
    System.out.println("inputDate ==> " + date + ", outputDate ==> " +outputDate + " " + sdf.format(outputDate) )
  }
}

}

Answer 4

I'm solved this problem more simple way using regex

fun parseTime(time: String?): Long {
    val longRegex = "\\d{4}+-\\d{2}+-\\d{2}+\\w\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}.\\d{3}[Z]\$"
    val shortRegex = "\\d{4}+-\\d{2}+-\\d{2}+\\w\\d{2}:\\d{2}:\\d{2}Z\$"

    val longDateFormat = SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.sssXXX")
    val shortDateFormat = SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX")

    return when {
        Pattern.matches(longRegex, time) -> longDateFormat.parse(time).time
        Pattern.matches(shortRegex, time) -> shortDateFormat.parse(time).time
        else -> throw InvalidParamsException(INVALID_TIME_MESSAGE, null)
    }
}

Answer 5

You'll need to use a different SimpleDateFormat object for each different pattern. That said, you don't need that many different ones, thanks to this:

Number: For formatting, the number of pattern letters is the minimum number of digits, and shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount. For parsing, the number of pattern letters is ignored unless it's needed to separate two adjacent fields.

So, you'll need these formats:

• "M/y" (that covers 9/09, 9/2009, and 09/2009)
• "M/d/y" (that covers 9/1/2009)
• "M-d-y" (that covers 9-1-2009)

So, my advice would be to write a method that works something like this (untested):

// ...
List<String> formatStrings = Arrays.asList("M/y", "M/d/y", "M-d-y");
// ...

Date tryParse(String dateString)
{
    for (String formatString : formatStrings)
    {
        try
        {
            return new SimpleDateFormat(formatString).parse(dateString);
        }
        catch (ParseException e) {}
    }

    return null;
}

Answer 6

This solution checks all the possible formats before throwing an exception. This solution is more convenient if you are trying to test for multiple date formats.

Date extractTimestampInput(String strDate){
    final List<String> dateFormats = Arrays.asList("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS", "yyyy-MM-dd");    

    for(String format: dateFormats){
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
        try{
            return sdf.parse(strDate);
        } catch (ParseException e) {
             //intentionally empty
        }
    }
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid input for date. Given '"+strDate+"', expecting format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS or yyyy-MM-dd.");

}