groovy

Add method on Date to parse strings created with date.toString()

Details

  • Type: New Feature New Feature
  • Status: Closed Closed
  • Priority: Minor Minor
  • Resolution: Fixed
  • Affects Version/s: 1.7.10
  • Fix Version/s: 1.8.4, 2.0-beta-1
  • Component/s: groovy-jdk
  • Labels:
    None
  • Number of attachments :
    1

Description

People often need to re-parse Dates out of strings created from date.toString().

My particular system's default date.toString() format is "Thu Apr 20 00:27:00 CEST 2006" so I know I can turn a Date into a string and then back into an object using Date.parse('EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy', new Date().toString()).

But breaks when date.toString() changes format, either in a future version of Groovy or when the code moves to another system where date.toString() produces a different format (I'm not clear if this can happen or not).

Activity

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Paul King added a comment -

Looking at the source code for toString() on java.util.Date it looks like the following format is always used: "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy". So, perhaps there is nothing to do here.

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Paul King added a comment - Looking at the source code for toString() on java.util.Date it looks like the following format is always used: " EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy ". So, perhaps there is nothing to do here.
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Tim Yates added a comment - - edited

It could be useful to add a default groovy method that can parse this format without needing to know the format string

Something like

"Thu Apr 20 00:27:00 CEST 2006".parseToStringDate()
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Tim Yates added a comment - - edited It could be useful to add a default groovy method that can parse this format without needing to know the format string Something like "Thu Apr 20 00:27:00 CEST 2006" .parseToStringDate()
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Paul King added a comment -

That could possibly be useful. Dean, you used the wording "But breaks ...". Do you have an actual example which you believe breaks with "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy"?

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Paul King added a comment - That could possibly be useful. Dean, you used the wording "But breaks ...". Do you have an actual example which you believe breaks with "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy"?
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Dean Moses added a comment -

Paul: no, I don't have an example where "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy" breaks. I didn't know that the format was hard-coded into java.utilDate – I assumed it would change based on system locale or something, which is an assumption other people could easily make.

It's not very Groovy to make people reverse-engineer the default date format like I had to, especially when they don't know whether that format will be stable across systems. It'd be very helpful to have a method for this.

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Dean Moses added a comment - Paul: no, I don't have an example where "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy" breaks. I didn't know that the format was hard-coded into java.utilDate – I assumed it would change based on system locale or something, which is an assumption other people could easily make. It's not very Groovy to make people reverse-engineer the default date format like I had to, especially when they don't know whether that format will be stable across systems. It'd be very helpful to have a method for this.
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Dirk Weber added a comment -

I've implemented the static DGM for the Date class. It can be used to parse a date which previously has been created by Date.toString(). Also created a test-case.

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Dirk Weber added a comment - I've implemented the static DGM for the Date class. It can be used to parse a date which previously has been created by Date.toString(). Also created a test-case.
Dirk Weber made changes -
Field Original Value New Value
Attachment groovy_4789.patch [ 57423 ]
Cedric Champeau made changes -
Status Open [ 1 ] Resolved [ 5 ]
Assignee Cedric Champeau [ melix ]
Fix Version/s 1.9-beta-5 [ 17925 ]
Fix Version/s 1.8.4 [ 17852 ]
Resolution Fixed [ 1 ]
Paul King made changes -
Status Resolved [ 5 ] Closed [ 6 ]

People

  • Assignee:
    Cedric Champeau
    Reporter:
    Dean Moses
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    Updated:
    Resolved: