How to parse date in yyyyMMddHH'.'mmss'00' format

Question

Hi all,
In an applet I am creating, I receive a timestamp in the following format:
yyyyMMddHH'.'mmss'00'
As an example, the date string I receive is "2003011419.304600" which, when decoded, gives, Jan 14 19:30:46 2003.
I need to convert this to the MM/dd/yyyy format for date and HH:mm:ss:SS for time, in order to display it in my applet.
Here is the scheme I am using:
String inputDateFormat = "yyyyMMddHH'.'mmss'00'";
SimpleDateFormat dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
SimpleDateFormat timeFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat ( "HH:mm:ss:SS");
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat ( inputDateFormat );
// Assume the tokens vector contains the correct string
Date dateTime = formatter.parse ( ( String ) tokens.elementAt ( 0 ) );
String date = dateFormatter.format ( dateTime );
String time = timeFormatter.format ( dateTime );
However, I am getting parse exception, Unparseable date error at the following line:
Date dateTime = formatter.parse ( ( String ) tokens.elementAt ( 0 ) );
Is this because the date format does not contain any delimiters (like space or period or slash)? I am kinda confused.
Thanks,
Alan

Answer 1

What I am wondering is
whether the date can be successfully parsed even if it
is in the strange format as above.My guess at this point in time is that this is a bug. I did not find anything in the bug database that suggested that it is known.
The following code demonstrates it.
Please post it (or let me know so I can post it.)
I am using build 1.4.0-b92, so if someone could try it on 1.4.1 it would be nice.
     String s;
     SimpleDateFormat f;
     java.util.Date d;
     // Works
     s = "2003011419.3046";
     f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHH.mmss");
     d = f.parse(s);
     System.out.println("date with no specials=" + d);
     // Works with 'a' at end
     s = "2003011419.3046a";
     f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHH.mmss'a'");
     d = f.parse(s);
     System.out.println("date with a at the end=" + d);
     // Works with '>' at end
     s = "2003011419.3046>";
     f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHH.mmss'>'");
     d = f.parse(s);
     System.out.println("date with > at the end=" + d);
     // Doesn't work with '0'(zero) at end
     s = "2003011419.30460";
     f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHH.mmss'0'");
     d = f.parse(s);
     System.out.println("date with digit at end at the end=" + d);