How to parse/format dates with LocalDateTime? (Java 8)
Java 8 added a new java.time API for working with dates and times (JSR 310).
I have date and time as string (e.g. "2014-04-08 12:30"). How can I obtain a LocalDateTime instance from the given string?
After I finished working with the LocalDateTime object: How can I then convert the LocalDateTime instance back to a string with the same format as shown above?
Solution 1:
Parsing date and time
To create a LocalDateTime object from a string you can use the static LocalDateTime.parse() method. It takes a string and a DateTimeFormatter as parameter. The DateTimeFormatter is used to specify the date/time pattern.
String str = "1986-04-08 12:30";
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm");
LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(str, formatter);
Formatting date and time
To create a formatted string out a LocalDateTime object you can use the format() method.
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm");
LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.of(1986, Month.APRIL, 8, 12, 30);
String formattedDateTime = dateTime.format(formatter); // "1986-04-08 12:30"
Note that there are some commonly used date/time formats predefined as constants in DateTimeFormatter. For example: Using DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME to format the LocalDateTime instance from above would result in the string "1986-04-08T12:30:00".
The parse() and format() methods are available for all date/time related objects (e.g. LocalDate or ZonedDateTime)
Solution 2:
You can also use LocalDate.parse() or LocalDateTime.parse() on a String without providing it with a pattern, if the String is in ISO-8601 format.
for example,
String strDate = "2015-08-04";
LocalDate aLD = LocalDate.parse(strDate);
System.out.println("Date: " + aLD);
String strDatewithTime = "2015-08-04T10:11:30";
LocalDateTime aLDT = LocalDateTime.parse(strDatewithTime);
System.out.println("Date with Time: " + aLDT);
Output,
Date: 2015-08-04
Date with Time: 2015-08-04T10:11:30
and use DateTimeFormatter only if you have to deal with other date patterns.
For instance, in the following example, dd MMM uuuu represents the day of the month (two digits), three letters of the name of the month (Jan, Feb, Mar,...), and a four-digit year:
DateTimeFormatter dTF = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd MMM uuuu");
String anotherDate = "04 Aug 2015";
LocalDate lds = LocalDate.parse(anotherDate, dTF);
System.out.println(anotherDate + " parses to " + lds);
Output
04 Aug 2015 parses to 2015-08-04
also remember that the DateTimeFormatter object is bidirectional; it can both parse input and format output.
String strDate = "2015-08-04";
LocalDate aLD = LocalDate.parse(strDate);
DateTimeFormatter dTF = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd MMM uuuu");
System.out.println(aLD + " formats as " + dTF.format(aLD));
Output
2015-08-04 formats as 04 Aug 2015
(see complete list of Patterns for Formatting and Parsing DateFormatter)
Symbol Meaning Presentation Examples
------ ------- ------------ -------
G era text AD; Anno Domini; A
u year year 2004; 04
y year-of-era year 2004; 04
D day-of-year number 189
M/L month-of-year number/text 7; 07; Jul; July; J
d day-of-month number 10
Q/q quarter-of-year number/text 3; 03; Q3; 3rd quarter
Y week-based-year year 1996; 96
w week-of-week-based-year number 27
W week-of-month number 4
E day-of-week text Tue; Tuesday; T
e/c localized day-of-week number/text 2; 02; Tue; Tuesday; T
F week-of-month number 3
a am-pm-of-day text PM
h clock-hour-of-am-pm (1-12) number 12
K hour-of-am-pm (0-11) number 0
k clock-hour-of-am-pm (1-24) number 0
H hour-of-day (0-23) number 0
m minute-of-hour number 30
s second-of-minute number 55
S fraction-of-second fraction 978
A milli-of-day number 1234
n nano-of-second number 987654321
N nano-of-day number 1234000000
V time-zone ID zone-id America/Los_Angeles; Z; -08:30
z time-zone name zone-name Pacific Standard Time; PST
O localized zone-offset offset-O GMT+8; GMT+08:00; UTC-08:00;
X zone-offset 'Z' for zero offset-X Z; -08; -0830; -08:30; -083015; -08:30:15;
x zone-offset offset-x +0000; -08; -0830; -08:30; -083015; -08:30:15;
Z zone-offset offset-Z +0000; -0800; -08:00;
p pad next pad modifier 1
' escape for text delimiter
'' single quote literal '
[ optional section start
] optional section end
# reserved for future use
{ reserved for future use
} reserved for future use
Solution 3:
Both answers above explain very well the question regarding string patterns. However, just in case you are working with ISO 8601 there is no need to apply DateTimeFormatter since LocalDateTime is already prepared for it:
Convert LocalDateTime to Time Zone ISO8601 String
LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.now();
ZonedDateTime zdt = ldt.atZone(ZoneOffset.UTC); //you might use a different zone
String iso8601 = zdt.toString();
Convert from ISO8601 String back to a LocalDateTime
String iso8601 = "2016-02-14T18:32:04.150Z";
ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.parse(iso8601);
LocalDateTime ldt = zdt.toLocalDateTime();