Java 8 Parse String to Date

Let’s see how you can convert from string to date in java 8.

1) Convert string to date in ISO8601 format

By default, java dates are in ISO8601 format, so if you have any string which represent date in ISO8601 format then you can use LocalDate.parse() or LocalDateTime.parse() methods directly.

String armisticeDate = "2016-04-04";

LocalDate aLD = LocalDate.parse(armisticeDate);
System.out.println("Date: " + aLD);

String armisticeDateTime = "2016-04-04T11:50";

LocalDateTime aLDT = LocalDateTime.parse(armisticeDateTime);
System.out.println("Date/Time: " + aLDT);

Output:

Date: 2016-04-04
Date/Time: 2016-04-04T11:50

2) Convert string to date in custom formats

If you have dates in some custom format, then you need to put additional logic to handle formatting as well using DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern().

	
String anotherDate = "04 Apr 2016";

DateTimeFormatter df = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd MMM yyyy");
LocalDate random = LocalDate.parse(anotherDate, df);

System.out.println(anotherDate + " parses as " + random);

Happy Learning !!

References:

DateTimeFormatter
LocalDateTime
LocalDate

Further Reading:

Parse a String to UTC Date Time Java 7 Date – How to Parse and Format LocalDateTime parse()