format date in groovy and save in desired format with milliseconds

Question

I'm trying to get a full date with milliseconds.

I tried following

        Date callTime = new Date();

        String formattedDate = callTime.format('MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS');

        println "formattedDate : " + formattedDate;

        def saveThisDate = new Date().parse("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS", formattedDate);

        println "saveThisDate : " + saveThisDate;

And it gave output as following

formattedDate : 12/22/2014 15:51:47.427
saveThisDate : Mon Dec 22 15:51:47 IST 2014

where the formattedDate gives correct output but I've to save it in a date so i tried doing saveThisDate . But it doesn't save milliseconds.

Where I'm doing wrong?

Answer 1

Dates are just dates, they don't have a format. You only give a data type a format when you convert it to a String. Create a String from the Date and give it the format you need.

Answer 2

It saves, You need to format it as well:

Date callTime = new Date();

String formattedDate = callTime.format('MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS');

println "formattedDate : " + formattedDate;

def saveThisDate = new Date().parse("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS", formattedDate);

println "saveThisDate : " + saveThisDate.format('MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS');

Answer 3

if you don't do additional formatting, the saveThisDate is printed out in default date format (depends on locale of your machine) and it doesn't include ms.

follow Opal's example