java text ParseException Unparseable date

Question

I have constantly been getting a parsing exception while I am trying the following code:

String date="Sat Jun 01 12:53:10 IST 2013"; 
SimpleDateFormat sdf=new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy HH:mm:ss"); 
Date currentdate; 
currentdate=sdf.parse(date); 
System.out.println(currentdate);

Exception:

Exception in thread "main" java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "Sat Jun 01 12:53:10 IST 2013" at com.ibm.icu.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:510)

Input: Sat Jun 01 12:53:10 IST 2013

Expected output: Jun 01,2013 12:53:10

How could I solve this?

Answer 1

Your pattern does not align to the input string at all, which is why it is not surprising that it does not work. This would probably work better by using:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);

Then to print with your required format you need a second SimpleDateFormat:

Date parsedDate = sdf.parse(date); 
SimpleDateFormat print = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM d, yyyy HH:mm:ss"); System.out.println(print.format(parsedDate));

Also keep in mind that you should include the locale as if your locale is not English, the day name might not be recognised.