Parsing a java Date back from toString()

Question

I have a String containing the result of toString() called on an instance of java.util.Date. How can I parse this value back to a Date object?

The Java docs say that toString() converts this Date object to a String of the form:

 dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy

but of course there is no such format tag as "dow" or "mon".

Could someone please help me with this problem. Please note that unfortunately the toString() call is in a piece of code out of my control.

Solution 1

If you don't have control over the code that's generating the String:

To parse the toString() format you need to set the SimpleDateFormat locale to english and use the format: "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy".

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy", new Locale("us"));`

Solution 2

I didn't test but something like this probably would work:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM HH:mm:ss z yyyy");
Date date = sdf.parse(dateStr);

If not, try to correct it using documentation: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Date.html#toString() http://docs.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Comments

[prepetti]

Mm..as I said, I have no control over the toString(), since it is made by Struts. Anyway, setting the EN locale does the trick, so thank you. I just have to note that the right format string is "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy", you had forgotten the Month.

[Nuno Gonçalves]

I edited the answer to have it. :)

[sizzle]

This does not work and results in an exception being thrown. The correct constructor call is: SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy", new Locale("us"));

[Alex R]

"dow" and "mon" are not valid format specs