Question

I have a date coming in. So for example 02/16/2012. What I need to do in order to work with my database format is convert it to 2012-02-16. I figured this would be pretty straightforward. But I can’t work it. Here is my date parser.

String endDateString = "02/16/2012"
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-dd"); 
endDate = dateFormat.parse(endDateString)

Any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

You should parse it FROM one correct format, then convert TO string with another correct format. What are you doing — is trying to interpret date in MM/dd/yyyy format with yyyy-MM-dd format, i.e. incorrect.

SAMPLE

public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {

    SimpleDateFormat sourceFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
    SimpleDateFormat destinationFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

    String sourceDateString = "02/16/2012";
    String destinationDateString;

    Date dat; // this object stores "perfect" date object

    // interpreting string with input format and converting it to date
    dat = sourceFormat.parse(sourceDateString);

    // expressing date object as string in destination format
    destinationDateString = destinationFormat.format(dat);

    System.out.format("Done from %s to %s\n", sourceDateString, destinationDateString));


}