java date format incompatible with xquery xs:date format, how to fix?

Question

In java, when using SimpleDateFormat with the pattern:

yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ

the date is outputted as:

"2002-02-01T18:18:42.703-0700"

In xquery, when using the xs:dateTime function, it gives the error:

"Invalid lexical value [err:FORG0001]"

with the above date. In order for xquery to parse properly, the date needs to look like:

"2002-02-01T18:18:42.703-07:00" - node the ':' 3rd position from end of string

which is based on the ISO 8601, whereas Java date is based on the RFC 822 standard.

I would like to be able to easily specify the timezone in Java so that it will output the way that xquery wants.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Maybe this forum post will help

Answer 2

Try this:

static public String formatISO8601(Calendar cal) {
MessageFormat format = new MessageFormat("{0,time}{1,number,+00;-00}:{2,number,00}");

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss");
df.setTimeZone(cal.getTimeZone());
format.setFormat(0, df);

long zoneOff = cal.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET) + cal.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET) / 60000L;
int zoneHrs = (int) (zoneOff / 60L);
int zoneMins = (int) (zoneOff % 60L);
if (zoneMins < 0)
    zoneMins = -zoneMins;

return (format.format(new Object[] { cal.getTime(), new Integer(zoneHrs), new Integer(zoneMins) }));
}

Answer 3

OK, the linked to forum post DID help, thank you. I did however find a simpler solution, which I include below:

1) Use Apache commons.lang java library
2) Use the following java code:

//NOTE: ZZ on end is not compatible with jdk, but allows for formatting
//dates like so (note the : 3rd from last spot, which is iso8601 standard):
//date=2008-10-03T10:29:40.046-04:00
private static final String DATE_FORMAT_8601 = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZZ";
DateFormatUtils.format(new Date(), DATE_FORMAT_8601)


Answer 4

Well, I did run into a problem - it doesn't appear to me (and I could be wrong) that there was any way to convert from and ISO string that DateUtils (from apache commons lang) creates, back to a date!
ie. apache commons will format it the way I would like, but not convert it back to a date again

So, I switched to JodaTime, and its much easier since its based on ISO8601 - here is the code:

public static void main(String[] args) { Date date = new Date();
DateTime dateTime = new DateTime(date);
DateTimeFormatter fmt = ISODateTimeFormat.dateTime();
String dateString = fmt.print(dateTime);
System.out.println("dateString=" + dateString);
DateTime dt = fmt.parseDateTime(dateString);
System.out.println("converted date=" + dt.toDate());
}

Answer 5

Great find regarding commons.lang.java! You can even save yourself from creating your own format string by doing the following:

DateFormatUtils.ISO_DATETIME_TIME_ZONE_FORMAT.format(new Date());