How to convert string values to dates in Java?

Question

I'm trying to convert some date values from access (MDB) database.

I'm getting this: 'Tue May 17 08:29:00 BRT 2011'. But I want this: '2011-05-17 08:29:00'.

I already tried to use JAVA 8 new DateTime classes but didn't work.

Here is what I tried:

public class DateHelper {

    LocalDateTime dateTime;

    public DateHelper(String dateTime) {
        this.convertStringToDateTimeDeclaration(dateTime);
    }

    protected void convertStringToDateTimeDeclaration(String dateTime){
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        this.dateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateTime, formatter);
    }

    public String getDateTime(){
        return dateTime.toString();
    }
}

but I get

"Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: Text 'Tue May 17 08:29:00 BRT 2011' could not be parsed at index 0"

When you say "didn't work", what does that mean? Are you getting an exception, is the output not what you're expecting? Also, I notice that the pattern you're using to parse is your desired *output* format, you need a pattern that will match the *input* format. — blm, Oct 07 '15 at 18:17
It says that couldn't be parsed. "Exception in thread "JavaFX Application Thread" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: Text 'Tue May 17 08:29:00 BRT 2011' could not be parsed at index 0" — Leo Ribeiro, Oct 07 '15 at 18:18
I'm glad it worked but you might want to edit your comment to clean up the language. — blm, Oct 07 '15 at 18:35
@gord-thompson do you have another tip to avoid this exception? — Leo Ribeiro, Nov 08 '15 at 15:44

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

As @blm suggested:

I had just to match the input patterns like this:

protected void convertStringToDateTimeDeclaration(String dateTime){
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy").;
        this.dateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateTime, formatter).withLocale(Locale.US);
    }

edit:

Added '.withLocale(Locale.US)' in the end of the LocalDateTime method chain to avoid the DateTimeParseException.

Thanks!!!

How to convert string values to dates in Java?

1 Answers1