Question

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How to parse dates in multiple formats using SimpleDateFormat

I’m using a to get input date. The date string can be in two different formats – MM/dd/yyy and dd.MM.yyyy. After submitting I need to parse this string into sql.Date and set it as a property of the nested object in ActionForm. What is the best way to parse this string in different formats and where should it happen?

Answer 1

First check whether the string contains a “.” or a “/” and then apply the appropriate DateFormat.

static Date parseDate(String in) throws ParseException {
  return new SimpleDateFormat(in.contains(".")? "dd.MM.yyyy" : "MM/dd/yyyy")
    .parse(in);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
  System.out.println(parseDate("31.01.2001"));
  System.out.println(parseDate("01/31/2001"));
}