Java SimpleDateFormat for time zone with a colon separator

Question

I have a date in the following format  2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00  I have thrown the following SimpleDateFormats at it to parse it   private static final SimpleDateFormat   FORMATS             new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZ      ISO8601 long RFC822 zone         new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssz      ISO8601 long long form zone         new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss      ignore timezone         new SimpleDateFormat  yyyyMMddHHmmssZ      ISO8601 short         new SimpleDateFormat  yyyyMMddHHmm            new SimpleDateFormat  yyyyMMdd      birthdate from NIST IHE C32 sample         new SimpleDateFormat  yyyyMM            new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy     just the year          I have a convenience method that uses those formats like so   public static Date figureOutTheDamnDate String wtf        if  wtf    null            return null            Date retval   null      for  SimpleDateFormat sdf   FORMATS            try               sdf setLenient false              retval   sdf parse wtf               System out println  Date     wtf     hit on pattern     sdf toPattern                 break            catch  ParseException ex                retval   null              continue                       return retval      It seems to hit on the pattern yyyyMMddHHmm but returns the date as Thu Dec 03 00 01 00 PST 2009   What is the correct pattern to parse this date    UPDATE  I don t NEED the time zone parsing  I don t anticipate having time sensitive issues moving between zones  but how would I get the  -08 00  zone format to parse      Unit test    Test public void test date parser         System out println   ntest date parser          month is zero based  are you effing kidding me     Calendar d   new GregorianCalendar 2000  3  6  13  00  00       assertEquals d getTime    MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  200004061300         assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 1950  0  1  getTime    MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  1950         assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 1997  0  1  getTime     MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  199701         assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 2010  1  25  15  19  44  getTime      MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  20100225151944-0800            my machine happens to be in GMT-0800     assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 2010  1  15  13  15  00  getTime   MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  2010-02-15T13 15 00-05 00         assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 2010  1  15  18  15  00  getTime    MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  2010-02-15T18 15 00-05 00          assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 2010  2  1  getTime    MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00         assertEquals new GregorianCalendar 2010  2  1  17  0  0  getTime    MyClass figureOutTheDamnDate  2010-03-01T17 00 00-05 00         Output from unit test   test date parser Date 200004061300 hit on pattern yyyyMMddHHmm Date 1950 hit on pattern yyyy Date 199701 hit on pattern yyyyMM Date 20100225151944-0800 hit on pattern yyyyMMddHHmmssZ Date 2010-02-15T13 15 00-05 00 hit on pattern yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss Date 2010-02-15T18 15 00-05 00 hit on pattern yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss Date 2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00 hit on pattern yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss Date 2010-03-01T17 00 00-05 00 hit on pattern yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss

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tl dr  OffsetDateTime parse   2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00      Details  The answer by BalusC is correct  but now outdated as of Java 8   java time  The java time framework is the successor to both Joda-Time library and the old troublesome date-time classes bundled with the earliest versions of Java  java util Date  Calendar  amp  java text SimpleDateFormat     ISO 8601  Your input data string happens to comply with the ISO 8601 standard    The java time classes use ISO 8601 formats by default when parsing generating textual representations of date-time values  So no need to define a formatting pattern   OffsetDateTime  The OffsetDateTime class represents a moment on the time line adjusted to some particular offset-from-UTC  In your input  the offset is 8 hours behind UTC  commonly used on much of the west coast of North America   OffsetDateTime odt   OffsetDateTime parse   2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00       You seem to want the date-only  in which case use the LocalDate class  But keep in mind you are discarding data   a  time-of-day  and  b  the time zone  Really  a date has no meaning without the context of a time zone  For any given moment the date varies around the world  For example  just after midnight in Paris is still    yesterday    in Montr  al  So while I suggest sticking with date-time values  you can easily convert to a LocalDate if you insist   LocalDate localDate   odt toLocalDate      Time Zone  If you know the intended time zone  apply it  A time zone is an offset plus the rules to use for handling anomalies such as Daylight Saving Time  DST   Applying a ZoneId gets us a ZonedDateTime object   ZoneId zoneId   ZoneId of   America Los Angeles     ZonedDateTime zdt   odt atZoneSameInstant  zoneId      Generating strings  To generate a string in ISO 8601 format  call toString   String output   odt toString      If you need strings in other formats  search Stack Overflow for use of the java util format package   Converting to java util Date  Best to avoid java util Date  but if you must  you can convert  Call the new methods added to the old classes such as java util Date from where you pass an Instant  An Instant is a moment on the timeline in UTC  We can extract an Instant from our OffsetDateTime    java util Date utilDate   java util Date  odt toInstant          About java time  The java time framework is built into Java 8 and later  These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java util Date  Calendar   amp  SimpleDateFormat   The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   To learn more  see the Oracle Tutorial  And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations  Specification is JSR 310   You may exchange java time objects directly with your database  Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4 2 or later  No need for strings  no need for java sql   classes   Where to obtain the java time classes     Java SE 8  Java SE 9  Java SE 10  and later   Built-in   Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation  Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes   Java SE 6 and Java SE 7   Much of the java time functionality is back-ported to Java 6  amp  7 in ThreeTen-Backport   Android   Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java time classes  For earlier Android   lt 26   the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport  mentioned above   See How to use ThreeTenABP        The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java time with additional classes  This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java time  You may find some useful classes here such as Interval  YearWeek  YearQuarter  and more

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Thanks acdcjunior for your solution  Here s a little optimized version for formatting and parsing    public static final SimpleDateFormat XML SDF   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZ   Locale FRANCE        private static final long serialVersionUID   -8275126788734707527L       public StringBuffer format Date date  StringBuffer toAppendTo  java text FieldPosition pos                            final StringBuffer buf   super format date  toAppendTo  pos           buf insert buf length   - 2                return buf              public Date parse String source  throws java text ParseException           final int split   source length   - 2          return super parse source substring 0  split - 1    source substring split       replace     du TimeZone

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Try this  its work for me   Date date   javax xml bind DatatypeConverter parseDateTime  2013-06-01T12 45 01 04 00   getTime      In Java 8   OffsetDateTime dt   OffsetDateTime parse  2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00

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Try setLenient false     Addendum  It looks like you re recognizing variously formatted Date strings  If you have to do entry  you might like looking at this example that extends InputVerifier

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If you can use JDK 1 7 or higher  try this   public class DateUtil       private static SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssXXX         public static String format Date date            return dateFormat format date              public static Date parse String dateString  throws AquariusException           try               return dateFormat parse dateString             catch  ParseException e                throw new AquariusException e                       document  https   docs oracle com javase 7 docs api java text SimpleDateFormat html which supports a new Time Zone format  XXX   e g  -3 00   While JDK 1 6 only support other formats for Time Zone  which are  z   e g  NZST    zzzz   e g  New Zealand Standard Time    Z   e g   1200   etc

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Here s a snippet I used - with plain SimpleDateFormat  Hope somebody else may benefit from it   public static void main String   args        SimpleDateFormat dateFormat   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZ             public StringBuffer format Date date  StringBuffer toAppendTo  java text FieldPosition pos                StringBuffer toFix   super format date  toAppendTo  pos               return toFix insert toFix length  -2                                 Usage      System out println dateFormat format new Date          Output   - Usual Output           2013-06-14T10 54 07-0200 - This snippet s Output  2013-06-14T10 54 07-02 00   Or    better  use a simpler  different  pattern   SimpleDateFormat dateFormat2   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssXXX       Usage  System out println dateFormat2 format new Date        Output   - This pattern s output  2013-06-14T10 54 07-02 00   See the docs for that

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You can use X in Java 7   https   docs oracle com javase 7 docs api java text SimpleDateFormat html  static final SimpleDateFormat DATE TIME FORMAT            new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd HH mm ss     static final SimpleDateFormat JSON DATE TIME FORMAT            new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssXXX     private String stringDate    2016-12-01 22 05 30   private String requiredDate    2016-12-01T22 05 30 03 00     Test public void parseDateToBinBankFormat   throws ParseException       Date date   DATE TIME FORMAT parse stringDate       String jsonDate   JSON DATE TIME FORMAT format date        System out println jsonDate       Assert assertEquals jsonDate  requiredDate

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If date string is like 2018-07-20T12 18 29 802Z Use this   SimpleDateFormat fmt   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss SSS Z

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Since an example of Apache FastDateFormat click for the documentations of versions 2 6and3 5  is missing here  I am adding one for those who may need it  The key here is the pattern ZZ 2 capital Zs    import java text ParseException import java util Date  import org apache commons lang3 time FastDateFormat  public class DateFormatTest throws ParseException       public static void main String   args            String stringDateFormat    yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZZ           FastDateFormat fastDateFormat   FastDateFormat getInstance stringDateFormat           System out println  Date formatted into String             System out println fastDateFormat format new Date              String stringFormattedDate    2016-11-22T14 30 14 05 30           System out println  String parsed into Date             System out println fastDateFormat parse stringFormattedDate              Here is the output of the code   Date formatted into String  2016-11-22T14 52 17 05 30 String parsed into Date  Tue Nov 22 14 30 14 IST 2016   Note  The above code is of Apache Commons  lang3  The class org apache commons lang time FastDateFormat does not support parsing  and it supports only formatting  For example  the output of the following code   import java text ParseException  import java util Date  import org apache commons lang time FastDateFormat  public class DateFormatTest       public static void main String   args  throws ParseException           String stringDateFormat    yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZZ           FastDateFormat fastDateFormat   FastDateFormat getInstance stringDateFormat           System out println  Date formatted into String             System out println fastDateFormat format new Date              String stringFormattedDate    2016-11-22T14 30 14 05 30           System out println  String parsed into Date             System out println fastDateFormat parseObject stringFormattedDate              will be this   Date formatted into String  2016-11-22T14 55 56 05 30 String parsed into Date  Exception in thread  main  java text ParseException  Format parseObject String  failed     at java text Format parseObject Format java 228      at DateFormatTest main DateFormatTest java 12

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if you used the java 7  you could have used the following Date Time Pattern  Seems like this pattern is not supported in the Earlier version of java   String dateTimeString     2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00   DateFormat df   new SimpleDateFormat  yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssXXX    Date date   df parse dateTimeString     For More information refer to the SimpleDateFormat documentation

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JodaTime s DateTimeFormat to rescue   String dateString    2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00   String pattern    yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ssZ   DateTimeFormatter dtf   DateTimeFormat forPattern pattern   DateTime dateTime   dtf parseDateTime dateString   System out println dateTime      2010-03-01T04 00 00 000-04 00    time and timezone difference in toString   is just because I m at GMT-4 and didn t set locale explicitly   If you want to end up with java util Date just use DateTime toDate     Date date   dateTime toDate      Wait for JDK7  JSR-310  JSR-310  the referrence implementation is called ThreeTen  hopefully it will make it into Java 8  if you want a better formatter in the standard Java SE API  The current SimpleDateFormat indeed doesn t eat the colon in the timezone notation   Update  as per the update  you apparently don t need the timezone  This should work with SimpleDateFormat  Just omit it  the Z  in the pattern   String dateString    2010-03-01T00 00 00-08 00   String pattern    yyyy-MM-dd T HH mm ss   SimpleDateFormat sdf   new SimpleDateFormat pattern   Date date   sdf parse dateString   System out println date      Mon Mar 01 00 00 00 BOT 2010    which is correct as per my timezone

[java] Java SimpleDateFormat for time zone with a colon separator?

tl;dr

Details

java.time

ISO 8601

`OffsetDateTime`

Time Zone

Generating strings

Converting to `java.util.Date`

About java.time

Examples related to java

Examples related to date

Examples related to iso8601