SimpleDateFormat throw java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at runtime while parsing date format.

Follow link below to get in depth knowledge of IllegalArgumentException .

[Solved] java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: “ABC”

Example DateTime throwing IllegalArgumentexception

In this example target format is throwing IllegalArgumentException because of using invalid formatting char for display AM/PM.

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.TimeZone;

public class ChangeDateFormat {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String targetFormat = "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss AM/PM";
		String currentFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss.SSS'Z'";
		String sourceDate = "2019-02-12T11:29:10.761Z";
		System.out.println("Source Date :"+sourceDate);
		String timezone = "CDT";
		DateFormat srcDf = new SimpleDateFormat(currentFormat);
		srcDf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(timezone));
		DateFormat destDf = new SimpleDateFormat(targetFormat);
		try {
			Date date = srcDf.parse(sourceDate);
			String targetDate = destDf.format(date);
			System.out.println("Target Date :"+targetDate);

		} catch (ParseException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}

	}

}

Output:

Source Date :2019-02-12T11:29:10.761Z
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Illegal pattern character 'A'
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.compile(Unknown Source)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.initialize(Unknown Source)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.(Unknown Source)
    at java.text.SimpleDateFormat.(Unknown Source)
    at com.fiot.test.ChangeDateFormat.main(ChangeDateFormat.java:19)

Solutions :

SimpleDateFormat allow only some key characters only while using date time formatting. Here for showing AM/PM should use character as a as mentioned in below code in targetFormat. Follow link to see complete list for formatting characters and date format.

Date Time Formatting Characters and Patterns

Correct format to AM/PM
"MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss a"

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.TimeZone;

public class ChangeDateFormat {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		String targetFormat = "MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss a";
		String currentFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd'T'hh:mm:ss.SSS'Z'";
		String sourceDate = "2019-02-12T11:29:10.761Z";
		System.out.println("Source Date :"+sourceDate);
		String timezone = "CDT";
		DateFormat srcDf = new SimpleDateFormat(currentFormat);
		srcDf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(timezone));
		DateFormat destDf = new SimpleDateFormat(targetFormat);
		try {
			Date date = srcDf.parse(sourceDate);
			String targetDate = destDf.format(date);
			System.out.println("Target Date :"+targetDate);

		} catch (ParseException ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}

	}

}

Output:

Source Date :2019-02-12T11:29:10.761Z
Target Date :02/43/2019 04:59:10 PM

More Issues Solution

To solved Date Time same code , formatting  and issues solutions follow the link given below:

Java Date and Time Handling Tutorial