Java SimpleDateFormat

External

• http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Internal

• java Format

Overview

DateFormat.parse() returns a Date instance whose getTime() is always relative to GMT, regardless of the default JVM timezone or the timezone offset specified in the date string. For more details on DateFormat.parse() and timezone, see java DateFormat Timezone.

Samples

"yy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss,SSS a"

produces:

13/01/31 01:00:00,000 PM

Excel, CSV and milliseconds

Excel understands "." so you may want to:

13/01/31 01:00:00.000 

More here: https://home.feodorov.com:9443/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=ExcelTimeAndDateFunctions#section-ExcelTimeAndDateFunctions-HandlingMillisecondsInExcel

Hour in Day

Warning If not using AM/PM (no "a" in the format), make sure you use HH for hours (instead of hh).

According to the documentation:

• "h" - Hour in am/pm (1-12)
• "H" - Hour in a day (0-23)

Month

To parse "Sep" use "MMM".

To parse "09" use "MM".

DateFormat and Timezone

java DateFormat and Timezone

Time Zone

Z

for -0800

Just one single "Z" not four or five.

UTC

Use Time Zone (see above) and "0000".

Examples:

This is UTC.

15/01/01 01:01:01+0000

This is PDT.

15/01/01 01:01:01-0700

Z in Time Stamp

"Z" means GMT in ISO 8601

To parse that, add "X" in the pattern.

Various Examples

"2015-09-22T18:03:46Z" is parsed by "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssX"