CODEWITHSUNDEEP
java
Muhammad Bekette
Muhammad Bekette

Reputation: 1434

SimpleDateFormat ParseException : Unparseable date

I'm trying to execute this code:

Date date = null;
if (detailsBean.getDiscoveryProjectBean ().getCreatedDate ()==null || 
    detailsBean.getDiscoveryProjectBean ().getCreatedDate ().equalsIgnoreCase(""))
{
    projectDetails.getDiscoveryProject().setCreationTime(new Date());
}
else
{
    try 
    {
        date = new SimpleDateFormat (FormatUtils.simpleFormat).
            parse (detailsBean.getDiscoveryProjectBean ().getCreatedDate ());
    } catch (Exception e) {
        throw new PanDaApplicationException (e.getMessage ());
    }
    projectDetails.getDiscoveryProject().setCreationTime(date);
}

in the try block a ParseException exception is thrown. I don't know the cause of that as the code seems fine, however. the definition of the FormatUtils.simpleFormat is public static final String simpleFormat = "dd-MMM-yyyy" and detailsBean.getDiscoveryProjectBean().getCreatedDate() have value like 28-Feb-2013

I really don't have any clues why this exception is thrown and I need help.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 3513

Answers (2)

Mikhail Vladimirov
Mikhail Vladimirov

Reputation: 13900

Locale.setDefault (Locale.ROOT);
System.out.println (new SimpleDateFormat ("dd-MMM-yyyy").parse ("28-Feb-2013"));
Locale.setDefault (Locale.forLanguageTag ("ru"));
System.out.println (new SimpleDateFormat ("dd-MMM-yyyy").parse ("28-Feb-2013"));

For me output is:

Thu Feb 28 00:00:00 MSK 2013
Exception in thread "main" java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "28-Feb-2013"
    at java.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:357)
    at DateFormat.main(DateFormat.java:19)

So the same date successfully parsed with ROOT locale, but failed with Russian.

Upvotes: 3

Jon Skeet
Jon Skeet

Reputation: 1503649

My guess is that the problem is the way that SimpleDateFormat uses your default locale - if your locale doesn't use "Feb" as an abbreviated month name, you'll have problems. So if all your data is actually in English, you might want:

DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(FormatUtils.simpleFormat, Locale.US);
format.setTimeZone(...); // See below
date = format.parse(detailsBean.getDiscoveryProjectBean().getCreatedDate());

Note the part about setting the time zone. Again, SimpleDateFormat will use your system default if you don't specify anything else. (You'll get the instant of "midnight in the specified time zone" as the Date value.)

I would also strongly urge you to consider using Joda Time instead of the built-in Date/Calendar types - it's a much better date/time API.

Upvotes: 4

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