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Hello,

I have an old database which had multiple dates stored in it.
Unfortunately, there were no fixed format for these dates and I now
have to standardize everything. In the past, I used to create a Date
object using the Date(String) constructor in order to parse the string
containing the date, since this constructor could recognize a date in
(almost) any format. Unfortunately, this constructor is now
deprecated and I want to use a non-deprecated method.

I tried to use the suggested replacement to this constructor, which is
the DateFormat.parse(String) method, but this method requires that we
specify the date format before parsing the date. As I mentioned
previously, I don't know the format of the field and don't really know
what to use anymore.

Any help would be more than welcome.

thanks in advance.

Seb wrote:
> there were no fixed format for these dates and I now
> have to standardize everything. [...]
>
> I tried to use the suggested replacement to this constructor, which is
> the DateFormat.parse(String) method, but this method requires that we
> specify the date format before parsing the date.

What you need is DateFormat which tries a series of Simple Date Formats.
If you such a class, I posted one called MultiDateFormat years ago on
this list or I could send it to you.

The trick is NOT the code, but putting the series of candidate formats
in order so that you don't inappropriately mis-identify a date;
01/01/2001 is ambiguous not matter what order you list mm/dd/yyyy or
dd/mm/yyyy.

-Paul

Paul,

I thought there was actually a class that did it and that I couldn't
find it. Thanks for your help. The problem with my database is that
in addition to the multiple date formats (yyyy/MM/dd, MM/dd/yyyy,
dd/MM/yyyy), I also have multiple date separators. I would really
appreciate if you could send me your class whether by re-posting it or
by sending it by e-mail. I think re-posting it would be the best
solution.

Thanks a lot for your help!

On 16 Dec 2004 11:40:55 -0800, wrote:

> ..I think re-posting it would be the best solution.

I think you would be better off learning how to use a search engine...

For instance Google groups advanced search for java groups..
http://groups.google.com/advanced_gr...omp.lang.java*

Plug in the source title as 'exact phrase'
and 'author's last name and out pops..
<http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?as_epq=MultiDateFormat&safe=images&as_ugrou p=comp.lang.java*&as_uauthors=hill&lr=&hl=en>

--
Andrew Thompson
http://www.PhySci.org/codes/ Web & IT Help
http://www.PhySci.org/ Open-source software suite
http://www.1point1C.org/ Science & Technology
http://www.LensEscapes.com/ Images that escape the mundane

wrote:

> The problem with my database is that
> in addition to the multiple date formats (yyyy/MM/dd, MM/dd/yyyy,
> dd/MM/yyyy), I also have multiple date separators.

So how DO expect to differentiate 1-12 followed by 1-12 in the first
and second fields? That is certainly a problem.

-Paul