CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javapattern-matchingdate-format
Henrique C.
Henrique C.

Reputation: 978

Java 1.3 check date string format

I have a date which is a String that I get from a database.

"12-12-2013" // for example

I know how to convert this in java to a date type or change the format in any way I want, there are tones of examples out there. But the thing I can't find is:

I want to be able to find out which pattern the date-string is using I mean if is

"dd-MM-yyyy"
//or
"yyyy-MM-dd"

or something else.

Is there any example I don't know of or didn't find?

I need this because I have this function to change the string's format:

public static String formatMydate(String datestring, String previousformat, String newformat) {
        
            java.util.Date date= null;
            String response = "";
            SimpleDateFormat formater;
            if (datestring.length()>=10){        
                try {                       
                    formater=new SimpleDateFormat(previousformat);
                    date = formater.parse(datestring);
                    response = new SimpleDateFormat(newformat).format(date);
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                    date=null;
                }
            }

            return response.toString(); 
}

But I want to know, before using it, the "previousformat" to enter it in the function parameter.

Is there a way to know which pattern a date is using?

This a duplicate question:

Returning a date format from an unknown format of date string in java [duplicate]

Parse any date in Java

Upvotes: 1

Views: 809

Answers (1)

chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-
chrylis -cautiouslyoptimistic-

Reputation: 77177

There's no simple general answer, since some places use dd-MM-yyyy and some use MM-dd-yyyy. If you only have to distinguish between dd-MM-yyyy and yyyy-MM-dd, split on the hyphen and count the digits.

Upvotes: 1

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