Java String to Date, ParseException

Question

I have a string named DateCompareOld, it has the value \"Fri Aug 12 16:08:41 EDT 2011\". I want to convert this to a date object.

 SimpleDateFormat          


        

Answer 1

Try this format:

EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy

Quick test:

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy");
    System.out.println(df.parse("Fri Aug 12 16:08:41 EDT 2011"));
}

// outputs
Fri Aug 12 15:08:41 CDT 2011

Output is in CDT, since that's where I am, but the value is right.

Answer 2

Note the String passed to SimpleDateFormat() should be corrected to "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy"

Here is the code:

import java.util.Date;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
public class DateTest{
public static void main(String []args){
    String DateCompareOld = "Fri Aug 12 16:08:41 EDT 2011";
    SimpleDateFormat dateType =  new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy");
    Date convertDate = new Date();
    try{
     convertDate = dateType.parse(DateCompareOld);
    }catch(ParseException pex){
        pex.printStackTrace();
    }
    System.out.println(convertDate.toString());
  }

}

Answer 3

DateFormat dateType =  new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy");
dateType.setLenient(false);
Date convertDate = dateType.parse(DateCompareOld);