Cannot parse String in ISO 8601 format, lacking colon in offset, to Java 8 Date

by

tl;dr

Until bug is fixed:

OffsetDateTime.parse( 
    "2018-02-13T10:20:12.120+0000" , 
    DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "uuuu-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSX" )
)

When bug is fixed:

OffsetDateTime.parse( "2018-02-13T10:20:12.120+0000" )

Details

You are using the wrong classes.

Avoid the troublesome old legacy classes such as Date, Calendar, and SimpleDateFormat. Now supplanted by the java.time classes.

The ZonedDateTime class you used is good, it is part of java.time. But it is intended for a full time zone. Your input string has merely an offset-from-UTC. A full time zone, in contrast, is a collection of offsets in effect for a region at different points in time, past, present, and future. For example, with Daylight Saving Time (DST) in most of North America, the offsets change twice a year growing smaller in the Spring as we shift clocks forward an hour, and restoring to a longer value in the Autumn when we shift clocks back an hour.

OffsetDateTime

For only an offset rather than a time zone, use the OffsetDateTime class.

Your input string complies with the ISO 8601 standard. The java.time classes use the standard formats by default when parsing/generating strings. So no need to specify a formatting pattern.

OffsetDateTime odt = OffsetDateTime.parse( "2018-02-13T10:20:12.120+0000" );

Well, that should have worked. Unfortunately, there is a bug in Java 8 (at least up through Java 8 Update 121) where that class fails to parse an offset omitting the colon between hours and minutes. So the bug bites on +0000 but not +00:00. So until a fix arrives, you have a choice of two workarounds: (a) a hack, manipulating the input string, or (b) define an explicit formatting pattern.

The hack: Manipulate the input string to insert the colon. 

String input = "2018-02-13T10:20:12.120+0000".replace( "+0000" , "+00:00" );
OffsetDateTime odt = OffsetDateTime.parse( input );

DateTimeFormatter

The more robust workaround is to define and pass a formatting pattern in a DateTimeFormatter object.

String input = "2018-02-13T10:20:12.120+0000" ;
DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "uuuu-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSX" );
OffsetDateTime odt = OffsetDateTime.parse( input , f );

odt.toString(): 2018-02-13T10:20:12.120Z

By the way, here is a tip: I have found that with many protocols and libraries, your life is easier if your offsets always have the colon, always have both hours and minutes (even if minutes are zero), and always use a padding zero (-05:00 rather than -5).

DateTimeFormatterBuilder

For a more flexible formatter, created via DateTimeFormatterBuilder, see this excellent Answer on a duplicate Question.

Instant

If you want to work with values that are always in UTC (and you should), extract an Instant object.

Instant instant = odt.toInstant();

ZonedDateTime

If you want to view that moment through the lens of some region’s wall-clock time, apply a time zone.

ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
ZonedDateTime zdt = odt.atZoneSameInstant( z );

See this code run live at IdeOne.com.

All of this has been covered many times in many Answers for many Questions. Please search Stack Overflow thoroughly before posting. You would have discovered many dozens, if not hundreds, of examples.

About java.time

The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date, Calendar, & SimpleDateFormat.

The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.

To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.

You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.

More Related Contents:

  1. What’s the difference between Instant and LocalDateTime?
  2. How to parse/format dates with LocalDateTime? (Java 8)
  3. How to parse dates in multiple formats using SimpleDateFormat
  4. Convert java.util.Date to java.time.LocalDate
  5. Converting between java.time.LocalDateTime and java.util.Date
  6. SimpleDateFormat parsing date with ‘Z’ literal [duplicate]
  7. Java 8: Difference between two LocalDateTime in multiple units
  8. ISO 8601 String to Date/Time object in Android
  9. UnsupportedTemporalTypeException when formatting Instant to String
  10. Unable to obtain LocalDateTime from TemporalAccessor when parsing LocalDateTime (Java 8)
  11. Difference between year-of-era and week-based-year?
  12. Java 8 Date and Time: parse ISO 8601 string without colon in offset [duplicate]
  13. How to get milliseconds from LocalDateTime in Java 8
  14. How can I create a Java 8 LocalDate from a long Epoch time in Milliseconds?
  15. Differences between Java 8 Date Time API (java.time) and Joda-Time
  16. Java 8 LocalDateTime is parsing invalid date
  17. Mocking time in Java 8’s java.time API
  18. Can’t parse String to LocalDate (Java 8)
  19. How can I parse/format dates with LocalDateTime? (Java 8)
  20. Format a date using the new date time API
  21. What is the motivation for two different week-based-year definitions in JSR-310?
  22. Natural Language date and time parser for java [closed]
  23. Java Time Zone When Parsing DateFormat
  24. Java 8: Calculate difference between two ZonedDateTime
  25. Java 8 LocalDateTime is parsing invalid datetime
  26. How to combine date and time into a single object?
  27. Java 8: performance of Streams vs Collections
  28. Calculate days between two Dates in Java 8
  29. Java 8: How do I work with exception throwing methods in streams?
  30. Displaying AM and PM in lower case after date formatting

Leave a Comment