How to Reliably Parse the Output of `Date.toString()` in Java?

How to Reliably Parse the Output of Date.toString()

When attempting to parse the output of new Date().toString(), developers often encounter challenges due to the lack of locale-specific formatting. This can lead to inconsistent and unreliable results.

To resolve this issue, the solution lies in understanding the underlying format specified in the Date#toString() documentation. The format is as follows:

dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy

Where:

• dow is the day of the week in abbreviated form (e.g., Sun)
• mon is the month in abbreviated form (e.g., Dec)
• dd is the day of the month (e.g., 12)
• hh is the hour (0-23) (e.g., 13)
• mm is the minute (0-59) (e.g., 45)
• ss is the second (0-59) (e.g., 12)
• zzz is the time zone name or abbreviation (e.g., CET)
• yyyy is the year (e.g., 2010)

Translating this into a SimpleDateFormat pattern, we get:

EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy

For example, the German-formatted string "Sun Dec 12 13:45:12 CET 2010" can be parsed using the following SimpleDateFormat:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy");

By using this pattern, you can reliably parse the output of Date#toString() and convert it into a Date object, regardless of the system locale settings.

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