What is the best way to parse a date in MM/DD/YY f

Question

One of our customers wants to be able to enter a date with only 2 digits for the year component. The date will be in the past, so we want it to work for the previous century if the 2 digit year is after the current year, but work for the current century if the 2 digit year is equal to or less than the current year.

as of today 10/30/2008

01/01/01 = 01/01/2001

01/01/09 = 01/01/1909

This is a strange requirement, and I solved the problem, I just don't like my solution. It feels like there is a better way to do this.

Thanks for the help.

public static String stupidDate(String dateString)
{
    String twoDigitYear = StringUtils.right(dateString, 2);
    String newDate = StringUtils.left(dateString, dateString.length() - 2);
    int year = NumberUtils.toInt(twoDigitYear);
    Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
    int centuryInt = c.get(Calendar.YEAR) - year;
    newDate = newDate + StringUtils.left(Integer.toString(centuryInt), 2) + twoDigitYear;
    return newDate;
}

Answer 1

The best way is to use the Joda Time API for dates and times in Java.