CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaparsingdatedatetime
Maxoudela
Maxoudela

Reputation: 2211

Date Parsing succeed in French but fails in English

Consider this program that format the current date, and try to parse it again. It succeeds in French, but fails in English and I don't understand why.

import java.util.Locale;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.time.Instant;
import java.util.Date;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;

public class HelloWorld{

     public static void main(String []args){

         try{
             SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss", Locale.ENGLISH);
             DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT,DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.ENGLISH).parse(formatter.format(new Date()));

             System.out.println("English - success");
         }catch(Exception ex){
             System.out.println(ex);
         }

         try{
             SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss", Locale.FRENCH);

             DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT,DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.FRENCH).parse(formatter.format(new Date()));
             System.out.println("French - success");

         }catch(Exception ex){
             System.out.println(ex);
         }
        System.out.println(Locale.getDefault());
     }
}

Output: 

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "11 Feb 2015 11:09:26"                                                                                                                           
French -success                                                                                                                                                                             
en_US

Please look at http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/DateFormat.html#parse%28java.lang.String,%20java.text.ParsePosition%29 before telling me that I should use a pattern or anything else. This method is meant to parse a String without a pattern.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 666

Answers (3)

Zhedar
Zhedar

Reputation: 3510

I suspect your input format string is wrong.

As per documentation Jun 30, 2009 7:03:47 AM would be a valid format for en_US on Default settings.

You could always check if your format is right by formatting a given Date first.
For example System.out.println(DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT,DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.ENGLISH).format(new Date())); gives Feb 11, 2015 12:34:48 PM, which doesn't fit 11 Feb 2015 11:09:26.

This should be your correct formatted string for en_US parsing: Feb 11, 2015 11:09:26 AM. Remember, this is AM / PM 12 hour time format, which can be annoying.

Upvotes: 3

vikingsteve
vikingsteve

Reputation: 40378

The default format for English is like this:

SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss a", Locale.ENGLISH);

Upvotes: 0

Peter
Peter

Reputation: 5798

are you sure that dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss is a correct english format dont they use month before days like US format ?

Upvotes: 0

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