How to not convert Date and time to any time zone

Question

I am accessing Dot net web services and using Ksoap library as my web services are Soap based.

Basically i want to save the dates and show them in list at it is. I do not want the date conversion to any specific region or time zone.

my dates which are coming from services has following pattern please have an example of threee different fields.

patient DOB = 1974-05-18T00:00:00

Collection Date = 2016-07-27T11:00:00

attachment Date uploaded = 2016-09-28T10:19:23.48

and I am using following method to convert them

public static Date convertStringToDate(String date,String dateFormat)throws Exception {
    Date output = null;
    SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat);
    try {
        simpleDateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
        output = simpleDateFormat.parse(date);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
        throw  e;
    }
    return output;

}

where dateFormat is "yyyy-MM-dd" and whereas date could be any string shown above in above example.

Problems:

1> When I convert date using that method I sometimes get accurate time and date 2> Some times I observed slightly changed in time , like 2 to 7 hours shift in time. this is due to time zone conversion 3> Some times I observe a whol day shift. Let suppose if the date that was coming from server was 2016-09-28T10:19:23.48 after conversion it becomes 2016-09-27 to me .

Whats wrong ? How can I simple show date as it is from web services How can i get that except saving dates directly in strings and showing those strings by splitting.

Please help me.

Update

i am converting back my date object back to string to show on UI in following manner

 public static String convertDateToString(Date date,String dateFormat)throws Exception {
    String output = "";
    try {
    SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat);
        simpleDateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
    output = simpleDateFormat.format(date);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw  e;
    }
    return output;
}

What's the time zone of the timestamp on the server? If it is local time you should convert it as such (and not UTC). Are your clients in different time zones? — Henry, Mar 20 '17 at 13:31
Can you show how you use the result of `convertStringToDate`? — dev.bmax, Mar 20 '17 at 13:49
@dev.bmax removed time zone from both sides and the result is same — Umair, Mar 20 '17 at 14:05
Double check everywhere. It doesn't make sense. `SimpleDateFormat` uses the default time zone for the device's locale by default. So parsing and then reformatting a date string, that has no explicit time zone you should get the same string back. — dev.bmax, Mar 20 '17 at 15:34
Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackoverflow.com/rooms/138584/discussion-between-umair-and-dev-bmax). — Umair, Mar 21 '17 at 04:38
@dev.bmax i have pasted both function I am just calling them as it is — Umair, Mar 21 '17 at 04:42

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '17 at 13:31

0

To achieve that, you need to know the actual timezone and dateformat of the server. If you knew it already, the following snippet would be useful

 public static String parseDateFormat(String incomingDate, String inputFormat, String outputFormat) {

        String finalDate = null;

        SimpleDateFormat input = new SimpleDateFormat(inputFormat); // server date format
        input.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(SERVER_TIMEZONE)); // timezone set in the server

        SimpleDateFormat output = new SimpleDateFormat(outputFormat); // format to which you want to convert
        output.setTimeZone(Constants.UTC_TIMEZONE);  // timezone to which you want to convert

        try {
            Date realDate = input.parse(incomingDate);
            finalDate = output.format(realDate);
        } catch (ParseException e) {
            Log.e("Error", e.getMessage(),e);
        }

        return finalDate;
    }

answered Mar 20 '17 at 13:31

J Anand Boss

126
6

i want date as return not a string. Date object – Umair Mar 20 '17 at 13:33
Simple, parse it again with "output.parse(finalDate);" It will return a date object – J Anand Boss Mar 20 '17 at 13:36
how to know SERVER_TIMEZONE when server is in different timezone – Umair Mar 20 '17 at 13:39
Yes.. It would be better to ask the server team to send the time in UTC_ZONE, then you can format/parse to your local zone – J Anand Boss Mar 20 '17 at 13:40
have you fixed the issue? – J Anand Boss Mar 22 '17 at 10:18

dev.bmax · Answer 2 · 2017-03-20T14:03:48.560

0

Setting the time zone on the date format adds an offset to the time stamp. And your server's time format doesn't include any time zone.

Remove the line simpleDateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

You generally need to set the time zone only when you intend to account for the difference between locales.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 14:03

answered Mar 20 '17 at 13:39

dev.bmax

8,998
3
30
41

removing that line doesnot effect anything – Umair Mar 20 '17 at 13:44
It seems that the difference is caused by formatting the resulting date into a string when you print it later. – dev.bmax Mar 20 '17 at 13:46

How to not convert Date and time to any time zone

2 Answers2