CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
124697
124697

Reputation: 21893

How can I parse a Date from a string and keep it in its format?

I have this code to convert a string to a date. but the resulting date is always in another format.

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm");
        try {
            String dateString  = "18/01/2013 11:59";
            dateTest = format.parse(dateString);
            System.out.println(dateTest); //output: Tue Jan 18 11:59:00 GMT 2013
           }

How can I make it so that dateTest is in the same format as the original?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 76

Answers (5)

user1910896
user1910896

Reputation: 11

Both java.util.Date and java.sql.Date store seconds and year, that's why you're seeing them when you print dateTest. If you want print the date in the format you provided (dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm) you simply need to format the date.

Date dateTest;      
SimpleDateFormat desiredDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm");

try
{
    String dateString  = "18/01/2013 11:59";
    dateTest = desiredDateFormat.parse(dateString);

    System.out.println(desiredDateFormat.format(dateTest)); //output: 18/01/2013 11:59
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    //do something
}

Upvotes: 1

Skepi
Skepi

Reputation: 478

When outputting, use:

System.out.println(format.format(dateTest));

Upvotes: 0

jlordo
jlordo

Reputation: 37823

This 

System.out.println(format.format(dateTest));

will do the job. You can use the format() method of your SimpleDateFormat to format the output the same way your input should be.

Upvotes: 2

Joeri Hendrickx
Joeri Hendrickx

Reputation: 17445

You can't, because a Date does not have a 'format'.

If you need this, you could create your own Date class that contains a built-in format, but it'd be icky.

The normal way is to format the date as you print it.

 System.out.println(format.format(dateTest));

Upvotes: 1

Peter Wooster
Peter Wooster

Reputation: 6089

Format the date using the same SimpleDateFormat you used to parse it.

Upvotes: 3

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