What is this date format? 2011-08-12T20:17:46.384Z

Question

I have the following date: 2011-08-12T20:17:46.384Z. What format is this? I'm trying to parse it with Java 1.4 via DateFormat.getDateInstance().parse(dateStr) and I'm getting

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2011-08-12T20:17:46.384Z"

I think I should be using SimpleDateFormat for parsing, but I have to know the format string first. All I have for that so far is yyyy-MM-dd, because I don't know what the T means in this string--something time zone-related? This date string is coming from the lcmis:downloadedOn tag shown on Files CMIS download history media type.

Answer 1

The T is just critical to depart the date from the time, and the Z indicates "zero-hours offset" likewise comprehended as "Zulu time" (UTC). If your strings perpetually have a "Z" you can apply:

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(

"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'", Locale.US);

format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

Or trying Joda Time, you can apply ISODateTimeFormat.dateTime().