java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date

Question

I get the following error: ´java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "Aug 31 09:53:19 2011"´ with this format: new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy");

Does anyone see the problem?

Answer 1

Make sure you're using the correct locale. (The SimpleDateFormat(String) constructor uses the system default locale, which may not be the one you want to use.)

This works fine on my machine:

String input = "Aug 31 09:53:19 2011";
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy", Locale.US);
System.out.println(df.parseObject(input));

(While using Locale.FRENCH for instance, results in a ParseException.)

Answer 2

The format itself is OK for the input you gave. But you might get this error if your default locale is set to something where "Aug" is not a valid abbreviation of a month name. Try using for example to Locale.US and you'll see that it will work:

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd HH:mm:ss yyyy", Locale.US);
Date date = df.parse("Aug 31 09:53:19 2011");