How to convert UTC Date String and remove the T and Z in Java?

Question

Am using Java 1.7.

Trying to convert:

2018-05-23T23:18:31.000Z 

into

2018-05-23 23:18:31

DateUtils class:

public class DateUtils {

    public static String convertToNewFormat(String dateStr) throws ParseException {
        TimeZone utc = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        sdf.setTimeZone(utc);
        Date convertedDate = sdf.parse(dateStr);
        return convertedDate.toString();
    }
}

When trying to use it:

String convertedDate = DateUtils.convertToNewFormat("2018-05-23T23:18:31.000Z");
System.out.println(convertedDate);

Get the following exception:

Exception in thread "main" java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2018-05-23T23:22:16.000Z"
   at java.text.DateFormat.parse(DateFormat.java:366)
   at com.myapp.utils.DateUtils.convertToNewFormat(DateUtils.java:7)

What am I possibly doing wrong?

Is there an easier way to do is (e.g. Apache Commons lib)?

Answer 1

Try this. You have to use one pattern for parsing and another for formatting.

public static String convertToNewFormat(String dateStr) throws ParseException {
    TimeZone utc = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
    SimpleDateFormat sourceFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'");
    SimpleDateFormat destFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
    sourceFormat.setTimeZone(utc);
    Date convertedDate = sourceFormat.parse(dateStr);
    return destFormat.format(convertedDate);
}