Unparseable date: "2013-07-11T13:41:22.000Z" (at offset 23)

Question

Can anybody tell me why in the world I got this exception?

08-28 08:47:05.246: D/DateParser(4238): String received for parsing is 2013-08-05T12:13:49.000Z

private final static String DATE_FORMAT_PATTERN = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ";   public static Date parseDate(String stringToParse) {         Date date = null;         try {             date = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT_PATTERN).parse(stringToParse);         } catch (ParseException e) {             Logger.logError(TAG, e);         }         return null;     }  08-28 08:47:05.246: E/DateParser(4238): Exception: java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2013-08-05T12:13:49.000Z" (at offset 23) 

Answer 1

try using

String DATE_FORMAT_PATTERN = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'" 

The Z at the end is usually the timezone offset. If you you don't need it maybe you can drop it on both sides.

Answer 2

Use X instead of Z at the end of the format string:

yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSX 

to parse ISO-8601 format timezone offsets.

(Only works if you use Java 7. See this question).