How can I convert this string to a standard date in java?

Question

Earlier I posted the following question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3791984/how-can-i-convert-this-date-in-java

But now I would like to know how I can convert this string into a date/time.

2010-03-15T16:34:46Z

For example: 03/15/10

UPDATED:

String pattern = "MM/dd/yy 'at' HH:mm";
                Date date = new Date();
                try {
                    date = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern).parse(q.getUpdated_at());
                } catch (ParseException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
                dateText.setText(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy 'at' hh:mma").format(date));

Gives me a result like:

Mon Mar 15 16:34:50 MST 2010

How can I format it to be

03/15/10 at 4:34PM

?

Answer 1

Both SimpleDateFormat and joda-time DateTimeFormat can parse this, using this pattern:

String pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'";

For example:

Date date = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern).parse(dateString);

And (joda-time):

DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormat.forPattern(pattern);
DateTime dateTime = dtf.parseDateTime(s);

Update

You have 2 date formats involved - one for parsing the input, and one for formatting the output. So:

dateText.setText(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy 'at' hh:mma").format(date));

(Of course, for the sake of optimization, you can instantiate the SimpleDateFormat only once, and reuse it)

Answer 2

If you want to format output string, change following line in your code

dateText.setText(date.toString());

to

dateText.setText(String.format("%1$tm/%1$td/%1$ty at %1$tl:%1$tM%1$Tp", date));

Answer 3

In a nutshell, you want to convert a date in a string format to a date in another string format. You have:

2010-03-15T16:34:46Z

and you want

03/15/10 at 4:34PM

You don't want to end up using java.util.Date object as you initially implied in your question. You also don't want to use its toString() since that returns a fixed format as definied in its javadoc.

The answer of Bozho still applies. Use java.text.SimpleDateFormat. First, you need to parse the date in string format into a Date object so that you can format it back into another string format.

// First parse string in pattern "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'" to date object.
String dateString1 = "2010-03-15T16:34:46Z";
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'").parse(dateString1);

// Then format date object to string in pattern "MM/dd/yy 'at' h:mma".
String dateString2 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy 'at' h:mma").format(date);
System.out.println(dateString2); // 03/15/10 at 4:34PM