Java SimpleDatetime parse

Question

Maybe i'm just missing the obvious, but I can't get SimpleDateTimes parse() method to work:

I want to parse dates like June 19, 2011. So, according to the documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

for my needs it should be:

M: Month in year. If the number of pattern letters is 3 or more, the month is interpreted as text; --> MMM
d: Day in month. For parsing, the number of pattern letters is ignored unless it's needed to separate two adjacent fields --> d
y: Year. For parsing, if the number of pattern letters is more than 2, the year is interpreted literally, regardless of the number of digits. --> yyyy

but with

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy");
Date d = sdf.parse("June 19, 2011");

I'll always get java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "June 19, 2011"

Where am I thinking wrong? :)

Sotirios Delimanolis · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-27 16:16:18Z

3

I'm assuming your Locale is some German value since you seem to be in Germany. June won't parse as a German word for a month. Set your Locale to an English value.

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);

answered Sep 27, 2014 at 16:16

Sotirios Delimanolis

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Basil Bourque Over a year ago

I recommend always specifying both time zone and locale to avoid these kinds of problems with implicit defaults.

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 11:49:36Z

0

Joda-Time

Here is an example akin to the correct answer but using the Joda-Time library.

Both Joda-Time and the java.time package are far superior to the old java.util.Date an .Calendar classes bundled with Java. One of many advantages is a class, LocalDate, to represent date-only values without time-of-day or time zone.

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "MMM, d, YYYY" ).withLocale( Locale.ENGLISH );
LocalDate localDate = formatter.parseLocalDate( "June 19, 2011" );

edited May 23, 2017 at 11:49

CommunityBot

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answered Sep 28, 2014 at 7:23

Basil Bourque

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