Convert String to java.util.Date

Question

Hi Folks,

I storing the date to SQLite database in the format

d-MMM-yyyy,HH:mm:ss aaa

And again retrieving it with the same format, the problem now is, I am gettin every thing fine exepth the Hour. Hour I am geting 00 every time, Here the print statement

String date--->29-Apr-2010,13:00:14 PM
After convrting Date--->1272479414000--Thu Apr 29 00:00:14 GMT+05:30 2010

Here is the code:

    Date lScheduledDate = CalendarObj.getTime();
    DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("d-MMM-yyyy,HH:mm:ss aaa");
    SomeClassObj.setTime(formatter.format(lScheduledDate));

    String lNextDate = SomeClassObj.getTime();
    DateFormat lFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("d-MMM-yyyy,HH:mm:ss aaa");
    Date lNextDate = (Date)lFormatter.parse(lNextDate);
    System.out.println("output here"+lNextDate);

Please where I am doing wrong.

Cheers, Vinayak

Answer 1

You should set a TimeZone in your DateFormat, otherwise it will use the default one (depending on the settings of the computer).

Answer 2

It sounds like you may want to use something like SimpleDateFormat. http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

You declare your date format and then call the parse method with your string.

private static final DateFormat DF = new SimpleDateFormat(...);
Date myDate = DF.parse("1234");

And as Guillaume says, set the timezone!

Answer 3

I think your date format does not make sense. There is no 13:00 PM. Remove the "aaa" at the end of your format or turn the HH into hh.

Nevertheless, this works fine for me:

String testDate = "29-Apr-2010,13:00:14 PM";
DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("d-MMM-yyyy,HH:mm:ss aaa");
Date date = formatter.parse(testDate);
System.out.println(date);

It prints "Thu Apr 29 13:00:14 CEST 2010". What does the above code print on your system? If it works, can you reduce your example to a working one that shows the problem?