What is the correct pattern for parsing the timezone format with SimpleDateFormat

Question

I want to define a pattern for the Java SimpleDaterFormat to parse existing strings.

The existing dates look like this: 2011-05-02T13:40:00+02:00.

I tried with different patterns, but I got ParseExceptions. The problem seems to be the timezone format.

Printing the pattern in Java:

• yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ
  • 2012-03-14T15:40:44+0100
• yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz
  • 2012-03-14T15:41:58MEZ

But how can I get

• ???
  • 2011-05-02T13:40:00+02:00

I'm using Java 6, not Java 7.

Ricky

Answer 1

If you can use Java 7 or newer, you can use the XXX pattern to get the timezone to look like +02:00:

yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX

Otherwise you might have to manipulate the date string to remove the colon from the timezone before parsing it.

Napolitano

Thx. Yes the support for ISO 8601 Time zone is realized with Java 7, but my application runs under Java 1.6. – Ricky

Maybe you can just remove the colon before passing it to the formatter then? I think this regex should only have an effect if the colon is there: dateString.replaceFirst("(\\d\\d):(\\d\\d)$", "$1$2") – Napolitano

I can not modify the string first. I use an tool to import a set of data and can only define a pattern. – Ricky

Above comment from @Napolitano works for me where I parse a value of ISO8601 date pattern in Android which doesn't support Java 7. Simple and clear solution. – Swaggering

Answer 2

I know it's a bit old question, but someone else might benefit from my hint. You can use JodaTime. As library documentation stands:

Zone: 'Z' outputs offset without a colon, 'ZZ' outputs the offset with a colon, 'ZZZ' or more outputs the zone id.

You can use it as well with java 6. You have more examples in this question

Byron