Understanding JodaTime DateTime.parse(string, formatter)

Question

Does the style of the formatter in the parse method of the DateTime class have to match the exact style of the string? For instance, I\'m getting a TimeStamp object from the

Answer 1

Use LocalDateTime instead:

String input = "08-AUG-12 12.00.00 AM";
String pattern = "dd-MMM-yy hh.mm.ss aa";

LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(input, DateTimeFormat.forPattern(pattern));

EDIT

As a matter of fact you can do it with DateTime also:

private static String parseDateTime(String input){
     String pattern = "dd-MMM-yy hh.mm.ss aa";
     DateTime dateTime  = DateTime.parse(input, DateTimeFormat.forPattern(pattern));
     return dateTime.toString("dd-MMM-yy hh:mm:ss aa");
}

Answer 2

Figured it out. To get the correct format, you have to call formatter.print(localDateTime object) and it worked.