Convert a sql timestamp to java OffsetDateTime

Question

I need to convert some timestamps to OffsetDateTime in java. For example, I have the following time:

2020-07-31 13:15:00.000000000 -03:00

Should I use SimpleDateFormat to format this or some other helpers that are more straightforward?

Answer 1

You need to use DateTimeFormatter (the parsing and formatting API for the the modern date-time classes) as shown below:

import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;

public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        OffsetDateTime odt = OffsetDateTime.parse("2020-07-31 13:15:00.000000000 -03:00",
                DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("u-M-d H:m:s.n ZZZZZ"));
        System.out.println(odt);
    }
}

Output:

2020-07-31T13:15-03:00

Check the documentation of DateTimeFormatter for more details on it. You can also check Trail: Date Time to learn more about the modern date-time API.

Note: java.util date-time classes are outdated and error-prone and so is their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat. You should stop using them completely. Moreover, OffsetDateTime is part of the modern date-time API and SimpleDateFormat doesn't fit with it.

If you are doing it for your 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.