Parsing a date with short month without dot

Question

Hello,

I have a String that represents a date in French locale : 09-oct-08 :

I need to parse that String so I came up with this SimpleDateFormat :

String format2 = "dd-MMM-yy";

But I have a problem with the month part, that seems to be expected with a ending dot :

df2.format(new Date());

gives me :

 28-oct.-09

What is now the best way for me to make SimpleDateFormat understand ("09-oct-08") ?

Full Code :

String format2 = "dd-MMM-yy"; 
DateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat(format2,Locale.FRENCH); 
date = df2.parse("09-oct-08");

This gives me : java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "09-oct-08"

And if I then try to log :

df2.format(new Date());

I get : 28-oct.-09

Answer 1

You can simply remove the ".":

df2.format(new Date()).replaceAll("\\.", ""));

---

Edit, regarding the lemon answer:

It seems to be a problem with the formatting when using the Locale French. Thus, I suggest that you simply use the . removal as I explained.

Indeed, the following code:

    String format2 = "dd-MMM-yy";
    Date date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format2, Locale.FRENCH);
    System.out.println(sdf.format(date));
    sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format2, Locale.ENGLISH);
    System.out.println(sdf.format(date));

displays the following output:

28-oct.-09
28-Oct-09

---

Edit again

Ok, I got your problem right now.

I don't really know how you can solve this problem without processing your String first. The idea is to replace the month in the original String by a comprehensive month:

        String[] givenMonths = { "jan", "fév", "mars", "avr.", "mai", "juin", "juil", "août", "sept", "oct", "nov", "déc" };
        String[] realMonths = { "janv.", "févr.", "mars", "avr.", "mai", "juin", "juil.", "août", "sept.", "oct.", "nov.", "déc." };
        String original = "09-oct-08";
        for (int i = 0; i < givenMonths.length; i++) {
            original = original.replaceAll(givenMonths[i], realMonths[i]);
        }
        String format2 = "dd-MMM-yy";
        DateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat(format2, Locale.FRENCH);
        Date date = df2.parse(original);
        System.out.println("--> " + date);

I agree, this is awful, but I don't see any other solution if you use to SimpleDateFormat and Date classes.

Another solution is to use a real date and time library instead of the original JDK ones, such as Joda Time.

Answer 2

String format2 = "dd-MMM-yy";
Date date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format2);
System.out.println(sdf.format(date));

Outputs 28-Oct-09

I don't see any dots sir. Have you tried re-checking your prints? Maybe you accidentally placed a . beside your MMM?

---

You're getting java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "09-oct-08" since "09-oct-08" does not match the formatting of Locale.FRENCH either use the default locale(US I think) or add a . beside your oct

Answer 3

Ok, then try «brute force» :)

DateFormatSymbols dfs = new DateFormatSymbols(Locale.FRENCH);
String[] months = new String[13]
<fill with correct month names or just replace these month, that are not fully correct>
dfs.setMonths(months);
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yy", dfs);
Date nweDate = sdf.parse("09-fév-08");

Answer 4

This seems to work:

    DateFormatSymbols dfsFr = new DateFormatSymbols(Locale.FRENCH);
    String[] oldMonths = dfsFr.getShortMonths();
    String[] newMonths = new String[oldMonths.length];
    for (int i = 0, len = oldMonths.length; i < len; ++ i) {
        String oldMonth = oldMonths[i];

        if (oldMonth.endsWith(".")) {
            newMonths[i] = oldMonth.substring(0, oldMonths[i].length() - 1);
        } else {
            newMonths[i] = oldMonth;
        }
    }
    dfsFr.setShortMonths(newMonths);
    DateFormat dfFr = new SimpleDateFormat(
        "dd-MMM-yy", dfsFr);

    // English date parser for creating some test data.
    DateFormat dfEn = new SimpleDateFormat(
        "dd-MMM-yy", Locale.ENGLISH);
    System.out.println(dfFr.format(dfEn.parse("10-Oct-09")));
    System.out.println(dfFr.format(dfEn.parse("10-May-09")));
    System.out.println(dfFr.format(dfEn.parse("10-Feb-09")));

Edit: Looks like St. Shadow beat me to it.