Conversion of String with timezone to date

Question

I have a string containing date with timezone like 2014-01-24 09.05.14 -06:00.

I need to convert this into date format as YYYYMMDD. What is the best way in Java to convert the above string into date.

Answer 1

Do it like this (requires JDK 7+):

DateFormat inputFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss X");
DateFormat outputFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
String dateString = "2014-01-24 09.05.14 -06:00";
Date date = inputFormat.parse(dateString);
System.out.println(outputFormat.format(date));

Answer 2

One way of doing it is to convert the String into a Date and then use a DateFormatter (eg the SimpleDateFormat ) to formate that date.

Take a look at this Tutorial for further information.