How to get Date object from MONTH("MMMM") or YEAR("yyyy") using DateTimeFormatter

Question

I am new to using DateTimeFormatter package, and same thing we are able to get using SimpleDateFormat.

Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM").parse(month);//"DECEMBER"
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy").parse(year);//"2020"

How to achive this using DateTimeFormatter?

Answer 1

The date-time API of java.util and their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat are outdated and error-prone. Let's see them in action:

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
        Date date1 = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM").parse("DECEMBER");
        System.out.println(date1);
        Date date2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy").parse("2020");
        System.out.println(date2);
    }
}

Output:

Tue Dec 01 00:00:00 GMT 1970
Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 GMT 2020

I do not need to explain what defaults they are taking. Instead of taking such unexpected defaults, they should have raised an alarm (throw some exception) which would have become helpful to a programmer to react to.

Because of such surprises, it is recommended to stop using them completely and switch to the modern date-time API.

Note: For any reason, if you have to stick to Java 6 or Java 7, you can use ThreeTen-Backport which backports most of the java.time functionality to Java 6 & 7.

If you are working for an Android project and your Android API level is still not compliant with Java-8, check Java 8+ APIs available through desugaring and How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project.

Using the modern date-time API:

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(parse("DECEMBER", "MMMM"));
        System.out.println(parse("2020", "uuuu"));
    }

    static LocalDate parse(String text, String pattern) {
        try {
            return LocalDate.parse(text, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(pattern));
        } catch (DateTimeParseException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
            // Return some default value
            return LocalDate.MIN;
        }
    }
}

Output:

Text 'DECEMBER' could not be parsed at index 0
-999999999-01-01
Text '2020' could not be parsed: Unable to obtain LocalDate from TemporalAccessor: {Year=2020},ISO of type java.time.format.Parsed
-999999999-01-01

So, now you (the programmer) get to know that you have to do something (e.g. use your own defaults) to parse the strings.

Demo:

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Month;
import java.time.Year;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoField;
import java.util.Locale;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate date = parse("DECEMBER", "MMMM");
        Month month = parse("DECEMBER", "MMMM").getMonth();
        System.out.println(date);
        System.out.println(month);

        date = parse("2020", "uuuu");
        System.out.println(date);
        int year = date.getYear();
        System.out.println(year);
        Year objYear = Year.of(year);
        System.out.println(objYear);
    }

    static LocalDate parse(String text, String pattern) {
        LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();

        // Formatter using today's day, month and year as defaults
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
                    .parseCaseInsensitive()
                    .appendPattern(pattern)
                    .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.DAY_OF_MONTH, today.getDayOfMonth())
                    .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.MONTH_OF_YEAR, today.getMonthValue())
                    .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.YEAR, today.getYear())
                    .toFormatter(Locale.ENGLISH);

        try {
            return LocalDate.parse(text, formatter);
        } catch (DateTimeParseException e) {
            System.out.println(e.getMessage());
            // Return some default value
            return LocalDate.MIN;
        }
    }
}

Output:

2020-12-15
DECEMBER
2020-12-15
2020
2020

If you do not want to create a date or date-time object, rather, if all you want to do is to parse your string into Month and Year, you can do it simply the following way:

import java.time.Month;
import java.time.Year;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder;
import java.time.format.TextStyle;
import java.util.Locale;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Month month = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
                        .parseCaseInsensitive()
                        .appendPattern("MMMM")
                        .toFormatter(Locale.ENGLISH)
                        .parse("DECEMBER", Month::from);

        System.out.println(month + " | " + month.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT, Locale.ENGLISH) + " | "
                + month.getDisplayName(TextStyle.FULL, Locale.ENGLISH));
        
        Year year = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu").parse("2020", Year::from);
        System.out.println(year);
    }
}

Output:

DECEMBER | Dec | December
2020

Learn more about the modern date-time API at Trail: Date Time.