parsing dates with variable spaces

I have just created a quick program to check this -

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM d HH:mm:ss yyyy");

try {
    String source1 = "Mon Nov 20 14:40:36 2006";
    Date d1 = sdf.parse(source1);
    String source2 = "Mon Nov  6 14:40:36 2006";
    Date d2 = sdf.parse(source2);

    String res1 = sdf.format(d1);
    String res2 = sdf.format(d2);

    System.out.println(source1 +"="+ res1);
    System.out.println(source2 +"="+ res2);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

The output from this is -

Mon Nov 20 14:40:36 2006=Mon Nov 20 14:40:36 2006
Mon Nov  6 14:40:36 2006=Mon Nov 6 14:40:36 2006

So, even though source2 has the extra space, it is still parsed by

EEE MMM d HH:mm:ss yyyy

Hope that helps

java.time and format pattern letter p

Here’s the modern answer, using java.time, the successor of Joda-Time.

    DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("EEE MMM ppd HH:mm:ss uuuu", Locale.ENGLISH);

    String[] stringsToParse = {
            "Mon Nov 20 14:40:36 2006",
            "Mon Nov  6 14:40:36 2006"
    };
    for (String dateTimeString : stringsToParse) {
        LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateTimeString, formatter);
        System.out.println(dateTime);
    }

Output:

2006-11-20T14:40:36
2006-11-06T14:40:36

To DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern format letter p means padding with spaces on the left. pp means padding to two position. It can be used for both formatting and — as here — parsing.

I know you asked about Joda-Time. The Joda-Time home page says:

Note that Joda-Time is considered to be a largely “finished” project. No major enhancements are planned. If using Java SE 8, please migrate to java.time (JSR-310).

Links

• Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.
• Documentation of DateTimeFormatter
• Joda-Time - Home