[java] Unable to obtain LocalDateTime from TemporalAccessor when parsing LocalDateTime (Java 8)

I am simply trying to convert a date string into a DateTime object in Java 8. Upon running the following lines:

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyyMMdd");
LocalDateTime dt = LocalDateTime.parse("20140218", formatter);

I get the following error:

Exception in thread "main" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: 
Text '20140218' could not be parsed: 
Unable to obtain LocalDateTime from TemporalAccessor: 
{},ISO resolved to 2014-02-18 of type java.time.format.Parsed
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.createError(DateTimeFormatter.java:1918)
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.parse(DateTimeFormatter.java:1853)
    at java.time.LocalDateTime.parse(LocalDateTime.java:492)

The syntax is identical to what has been suggested here, yet I am served with an exception. I am using JDK-8u25.

This is a really unclear and unhelpful error message. After much trial and error I found that LocalDateTime will give the above error if you do not attempt to parse a time. By using LocalDate instead, it works without erroring.

This is poorly documented and the related exception is very unhelpful.

For what is worth if anyone should read again this topic(like me) the correct answer would be in DateTimeFormatter definition, e.g.:

private static DateTimeFormatter DATE_FORMAT =  
            new DateTimeFormatterBuilder().appendPattern("dd/MM/yyyy[ [HH][:mm][:ss][.SSS]]")
            .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0)
            .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.MINUTE_OF_HOUR, 0)
            .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.SECOND_OF_MINUTE, 0)
            .toFormatter(); 

One should set the optional fields if they will appear. And the rest of code should be exactly the same.

For anyone who landed here with this error, like I did:

Unable to obtain LocalDateTime from TemporalAccessor: {HourOfAmPm=0, MinuteOfHour=0}

It came from a the following line:

LocalDateTime.parse(date, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("M/d/yy h:mm"));

It turned out that it was because I was using a 12hr Hour pattern on a 0 hour, instead of a 24hr pattern.

Changing the hour to 24hr pattern by using a capital H fixes it:

LocalDateTime.parse(date, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("M/d/yy H:mm"));

Try this one:

DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM-dd-yyyy"); 
LocalDate fromLocalDate = LocalDate.parse(fromdstrong textate, dateTimeFormatter);

You can add any format you want. That works for me!

Expanding on retrography's answer..: I had this same problem even when using LocalDate and not LocalDateTime. The issue was that I had created my DateTimeFormatter using .withResolverStyle(ResolverStyle.STRICT);, so I had to use date pattern uuuuMMdd instead of yyyyMMdd (i.e. "year" instead of "year-of-era")!

DateTimeFormatter formatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
  .parseStrict()
  .appendPattern("uuuuMMdd")
  .toFormatter()
  .withResolverStyle(ResolverStyle.STRICT);
LocalDate dt = LocalDate.parse("20140218", formatter);

(This solution was originally a comment to retrography's answer, but I was encouraged to post it as a stand-alone answer because it apparently works really well for many people.)

This works fine

public class DateDemo {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm");
        String date = "16-08-2018 12:10";
        LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.parse(date, formatter);
        System.out.println("VALUE="+localDate);

        DateTimeFormatter formatter1 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm");
        LocalDateTime parse = LocalDateTime.parse(date, formatter1);
        System.out.println("VALUE1="+parse);
    }
}

output:

VALUE=2018-08-16
VALUE1=2018-08-16T12:10

If you really need to transform a date to a LocalDateTime object, you could use the LocalDate.atStartOfDay(). This will give you a LocalDateTime object at the specified date, having the hour, minute and second fields set to 0:

final DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyyMMdd");
LocalDateTime time = LocalDate.parse("20140218", formatter).atStartOfDay();

If the date String does not include any value for hours, minutes and etc you cannot directly convert this to a LocalDateTime. You can only convert it to a LocalDate, because the string only represent the year,month and date components it would be the correct thing to do.

DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyyMMdd");
LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse("20180306", dtf); // 2018-03-06

Anyway you can convert this to LocalDateTime.

DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyyMMdd");
LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse("20180306", dtf);
LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.of(ld, LocalTime.of(0,0)); // 2018-03-06T00:00