[java] SimpleDateFormat parse loses timezone

OP's solution to his problem, as he says, has dubious output. That code still shows confusion about representations of time. To clear up this confusion, and make code that won't lead to wrong times, consider this extension of what he did:

public static void _testDateFormatting() {
    SimpleDateFormat sdfGMT1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss");
    sdfGMT1.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
    SimpleDateFormat sdfGMT2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss z");
    sdfGMT2.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));

    SimpleDateFormat sdfLocal1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss");
    SimpleDateFormat sdfLocal2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss z");

    try {
        Date d = new Date();
        String s1 = d.toString();
        String s2 = sdfLocal1.format(d);
        // Store s3 or s4 in database.
        String s3 = sdfGMT1.format(d);
        String s4 = sdfGMT2.format(d);
        // Retrieve s3 or s4 from database, using LOCAL sdf.
        String s5 = sdfLocal1.parse(s3).toString();
        //EXCEPTION String s6 = sdfLocal2.parse(s3).toString();
        String s7 = sdfLocal1.parse(s4).toString();
        String s8 = sdfLocal2.parse(s4).toString();
        // Retrieve s3 from database, using GMT sdf.
        // Note that this is the SAME sdf that created s3.
        Date d2 = sdfGMT1.parse(s3);
        String s9 = d2.toString();
        String s10 = sdfGMT1.format(d2);
        String s11 = sdfLocal2.format(d2);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }       
}

examining values in a debugger:

s1  "Mon Sep 07 06:11:53 EDT 2015" (id=831698113128)    
s2  "2015.09.07 06:11:53" (id=831698114048) 
s3  "2015.09.07 10:11:53" (id=831698114968) 
s4  "2015.09.07 10:11:53 GMT+00:00" (id=831698116112)   
s5  "Mon Sep 07 10:11:53 EDT 2015" (id=831698116944)    
s6  -- omitted, gave parse exception    
s7  "Mon Sep 07 10:11:53 EDT 2015" (id=831698118680)    
s8  "Mon Sep 07 06:11:53 EDT 2015" (id=831698119584)    
s9  "Mon Sep 07 06:11:53 EDT 2015" (id=831698120392)    
s10 "2015.09.07 10:11:53" (id=831698121312) 
s11 "2015.09.07 06:11:53 EDT" (id=831698122256) 

sdf2 and sdfLocal2 include time zone, so we can see what is really going on. s1 & s2 are at 06:11:53 in zone EDT. s3 & s4 are at 10:11:53 in zone GMT -- equivalent to the original EDT time. Imagine we save s3 or s4 in a data base, where we are using GMT for consistency, so we can have times from anywhere in the world, without storing different time zones.

s5 parses the GMT time, but treats it as a local time. So it says "10:11:53" -- the GMT time -- but thinks it is 10:11:53 in local time. Not good.

s7 parses the GMT time, but ignores the GMT in the string, so still treats it as a local time.

s8 works, because now we include GMT in the string, and the local zone parser uses it to convert from one time zone to another.

Now suppose you don't want to store the zone, you want to be able to parse s3, but display it as a local time. The answer is to parse using the same time zone it was stored in -- so use the same sdf as it was created in, sdfGMT1. s9, s10, & s11 are all representations of the original time. They are all "correct". That is, d2 == d1. Then it is only a question of how you want to DISPLAY it. If you want to display what is stored in DB -- GMT time -- then you need to format it using a GMT sdf. Ths is s10.

So here is the final solution, if you don't want to explicitly store with " GMT" in the string, and want to display in GMT format:

public static void _testDateFormatting() {
    SimpleDateFormat sdfGMT1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss");
    sdfGMT1.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));

    try {
        Date d = new Date();
        String s3 = sdfGMT1.format(d);
        // Store s3 in DB.
        // ...
        // Retrieve s3 from database, using GMT sdf.
        Date d2 = sdfGMT1.parse(s3);
        String s10 = sdfGMT1.format(d2);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }       
}