Java - Parsing a Date from a String

Question

I want to parse a java.util.Date from a String. I tried the following code but got unexpected output:

Date getDate() {
    Date date = null;

    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd");
    try {
        date = sdf.parse("Sat May 11");
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(URLExtractor.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        return null;
    }

    return date;
}

When I run the above code, I got the following output:

Mon May 11 00:00:00 IST 1970

Then you have to specify the year, you can't get a Saturday if that date is a Monday. — bakkal
– bakkal, Commented May 23, 2010 at 10:26

tangens · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-23 10:23:10Z

6

You have not specified a year in your string. The default year is 1970. And in 1970 the 11th of May was a Monday - SimpleDateFormat is simply ignoring the weekday in your string.

From the javadoc of DateFormat:

The date is represented as a Date object or as the milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.

edited May 23, 2010 at 10:23

answered May 23, 2010 at 10:18

tangens

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Comments

Mr.Expert · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-23 10:25:27Z

0

Specify a year within the Format to get the correct output.

If you don't specify any year, the default is 1970.

answered May 23, 2010 at 10:25

Mr.Expert

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bakkal · Accepted Answer · 2010-05-23 10:34:49Z

0

if the year is the problem you can add y for year:

 public Date getDate() {
    Date date = null;

    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd y");
    try {
        date = sdf.parse("May 11 2010");
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        Logger.getLogger(URLExtractor.class.getName()).log(Level.SEVERE, null, ex);
        return null;
    }

    return date;
}
 System.out.println(getDate());

Tue May 11 00:00:00 EDT 2010

Edit:

To get the correct day of the week you need to specify the date (with the year). I edited the code above.

edited May 23, 2010 at 10:34

answered May 23, 2010 at 10:23

bakkal

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