How to Parse Date Output from `Date.toString()` in Java?

Parsing Date Output from Date.toString()

In Java, the toString() method of the Date class generates a date string in a specific format. This format varies depending on the locale of the user's system. However, sometimes it is necessary to parse this string regardless of localization settings.

This is where SimpleDateFormat comes into play. SimpleDateFormat allows for parsing and formatting dates in a specific pattern. To parse the output of new Date().toString(), we need to specify the corresponding pattern.

The toString() method generates a date string in the format:

EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy

Where:

• EEE is the abbreviated weekday
• MMM is the abbreviated month
• dd is the day of the month (0-padded)
• HH is the hour (0-padded)
• mm is the minute (0-padded)
• ss is the second (0-padded)
• zzz is the time zone name
• yyyy is the year

In SimpleDateFormat pattern terms, this translates to:

EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy

Therefore, to parse the output of new Date().toString(), we can use the following SimpleDateFormat pattern:

<code class="java">SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy");
Date date = sdf.parse(dateString);</code>

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