Date format parse exception - “EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• How to convert date in to yyyy-MM-dd Format? 5 answers

I got problem with date parse example date:

SimpleDateFormat parserSDF=new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzzz yyyy", Locale.getDefault());


parserSDF.parse("Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013");

got exception

Exacly I want parse this format date to yyyy-MM-dd I try:

SimpleDateFormat parserSDF = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd", Locale.ENGLISH);
Date date = parserSDF.parse("Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013");

take : java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013"

---

OK I change to and works :

SimpleDateFormat parserSDF = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzzz yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
Date date = parserSDF.parse("Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013");

Answer 1

I think the original Exception is due to Z in your format. Per documentation:

Z   Time zone   RFC 822 time zone   -0800

most likely you meant to use lower case z

Answer 2

Instead of using Locale.default that you and others often don't know which default, you can decide by using locale.ENGLISH because I see your string date is format in English. If you are at other countries, the format will be different.

Here is my example code:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
        SimpleDateFormat parserSDF = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss Z yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
        Date date = parserSDF.parse("Wed Oct 16 00:00:00 CEST 2013");
        System.out.println("date: " + date.toString());
    } catch (ParseException ex) {
        ex.printStackTrace();
    }
}

The result will be : date: Wed Oct 16 05:00:00 ICT 2013. Or you can decide which part of this date to be printed, by using its fields.

Hope this help :)

Answer 3

I'm going to assume that Locale.getDefault() for you is pl-PL since you seem to be in Poland.

English words in date strings therefore cause an unparseable date.

An appropriate Polish date String would be something like

"Wt paź 16 00:00:00 -0500 2013"

Otherwise, change your Locale to Locale.ENGLISH so that the SimpleDateFormat object can parse String dates with English words.