Question

Is there any function in joda.time which validates a string whether it represents correct time zone or not and throws a exception if it is not in the correct format?

I am aware of TimeZone.getAvalibaleIDs() but just curious to know if there is any predefined function.

Answer 1

DateTimeZone.forID() will throw an exception if the ID isn’t recognized.

That’s appropriate if you’re trying to get the actual zone – if you’re just trying to validate whether an ID is valid or not, I’d use getAvailableIDs():

boolean valid = DateTimeZone.getAvailableIDs().contains(id);

That’s better in terms of avoiding using exceptions for flow control, IMO. However, they’re not equivalent – fixed-offset time zone IDs are valid in DateTimeZone.forID(), but may not be included in the set of available IDs.