How To Convert String to Date in Java

Do you wanna learn how you can convert Date stored in String to Date format in Java ? Today you are going to learn the same. We can convert a String to Date in java using parse() method of Dateformat and SimpleDateFormat classes.

Java String to Date Conversion Example

Let’s see the simple code of String to Date conversion in java.

 import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;  
 import java.util.Date;  
 public class StringToDate {  
  public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception {  
     String stringDate="01/01/2021";  
     SimpleDateFormat format=new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
     Date mydate = format.parse(stringDate);
     System.out.println(stringDate+"\t"+mydate);  
  }  
 }  

output

  01/01/2021	Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 IST 2021

The java.text.SimpleDateFormat class has methods which are used for both to parse and format date according to a formatting pattern you want to use. The SimpleDateFormat parses the date pattern in java String format. The SimpleDateFormat formats the date into String and can also format the date into StringBuffer.

Let’s see example of SimpleDateFormat

 String pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
 SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);

Formatting Dates

Once you have create SimpleDateFormat instance you can use the format() method to format the date. Let’s see an example

 String pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
 SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);

 String date = simpleDateFormat.format(new Date());
 System.out.println(date);

java.util.Date – Date in Java

The java.util.date class represents date and time in java. It provides methods and constructors to deal with date and time in java. Let’s see with example of using it with SimpleDateFormat class in java.

    java.util.Date date=new java.util.Date();  
    System.out.println(date);  

Output

  Sat Jan 02 08:22:02 IST 2021

Formatting Pattern Syntax

Let’s see some symbols used in the formatting pattern to format date

 G 	Era designator (before christ, after christ)
 y  	Year (e.g. 12 or 2012). Use either yy or yyyy.
 M 	Month, Number of M's determine length of format(e.g.MM, MMM or MMMMM)
 d 	Day in month. Number of d's determine length of format (e.g. d or dd)
 h 	Hour of day, 1-12 (AM / PM) (normally hh)
 H 	Hour of day, 0-23 (normally HH)
 m 	Minute in hour, 0-59 (normally mm)
 s 	Second in minute, 0-59 (normally ss)
 S 	Millisecond in second, 0-999 (normally SSS)
 E 	Day in week (e.g Monday, Tuesday etc.)
 D 	Day in year (1-366)
 F 	Day of week in month (e.g. 1st Thursday of December)
 w 	Week in year (1-53)
 W 	Week in month (0-5)
 a 	AM / PM marker
 k 	Hour in day (1-24, unlike HH's 0-23)
 K 	Hour in day, AM / PM (0-11)
 z 	Time Zone
 ' 	Escape for text delimiter
 ' 	Single quote

Pattern Example for SimpleDateFormat

Let’s see few SimpleDateFormat pattern examples :

 Pattern 	                   Example
 dd-MM-yy 	                   31-01-12
 dd-MM-yyyy 	                   31-01-2012
 MM-dd-yyyy 	                   01-31-2012
 yyyy-MM-dd 	                   2012-01-31
 yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss 	           2012-01-31 23:59:59
 yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS 	   2012-01-31 23:59:59.999
 yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSZ 	   2012-01-31 23:59:59.999+0100
 EEEEE MMMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSSZ    Saturday November 2012 10:45:42.720+0100

Now, Lets see code to convert different Strings to Date in java. Here, you will learn to use different date format patterns.

    import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;  
    import java.util.Date;  
    public class StringToDate {  
    public static void main(String[] args)throws Exception {  
        String sDate1 = "31/12/1998";  
        String sDate2 = "31-Dec-1998";  
        String sDate3 = "12 31, 1998";  
        String sDate4 = "Thu, Dec 31 1998";  
        String sDate5 = "Thu, Dec 31 1998 23:37:50";  
        String sDate6 = "31-Dec-1998 23:37:50";  
        SimpleDateFormat format1 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");  
        SimpleDateFormat format2 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy");  
        SimpleDateFormat format3 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM dd, yyyy");  
        SimpleDateFormat format4 = new SimpleDateFormat("E, MMM dd yyyy");  
        SimpleDateFormat format5 = new SimpleDateFormat("E, MMM dd yyyy    HH:mm:ss");  
        SimpleDateFormat format6 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");  
        Date date1=format1.parse(sDate1);  
        Date date2=format2.parse(sDate2);  
        Date date3=format3.parse(sDate3);  
        Date date4=format4.parse(sDate4);  
        Date date5=format5.parse(sDate5);  
        Date date6=format6.parse(sDate6);  
        System.out.println(sDate1+"\t"+date1);  
        System.out.println(sDate2+"\t"+date2);  
        System.out.println(sDate3+"\t"+date3);  
        System.out.println(sDate4+"\t"+date4);  
        System.out.println(sDate5+"\t"+date5);  
        System.out.println(sDate6+"\t"+date6);  
    }  
  }  

Output

 31/12/1998	 Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 IST 1998
 31-Dec-1998	 Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 IST 1998
 12 31, 1998	 Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 IST 1998
 Thu, Dec 31 1998	 Thu Dec 31 00:00:00 IST 1998
 Thu, Dec 31 1998 23:37:50	 Thu Dec 31 23:37:50 IST 1998
 31-Dec-1998 23:37:50	 Thu Dec 31 23:37:50 IST 1998