java - parsing a date string from FTPClient.getModificationTime()

Question

I am trying to parse a date string which is a modification date of a file on FTP server. Following is the code.

String dateString = mFTPClient.getModificationTime(PDF_FILE_NAME_PS);

SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHHmmss");

Date modificationDate = dateFormat.parse(dateString.substring(dateString.indexOf(" ")));

Log.v(TAG, "inside downloadservice dateString="+dateString);

Log.v(TAG, "inside downloadservice modificationdate="+modificationDate.toString());

I get this in my log

05-27 10:04:20.870: V/DownloadService(751): inside downloadservice dateString=213 20130523130035

05-27 10:04:20.890: V/DownloadService(751): inside downloadservice modificationdate=Sat Jul 23 07:30:35 AEDT 203

Can anyone please help me with this?

Answer 1

The javadoc for the String#substring(int index) method says: The substring begins with the character at the specified index and extends to the end of this string.

And here is the problem you have: You're not using correctly the String.substring() method, because when invoking it, you receive another String, which contains a space as a first character, which is why the parser does a mistake.

Here's the fix you need:

String dateString = mFTPClient.getModificationTime(PDF_FILE_NAME_PS);
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHHmmss");
Date modificationDate = 
     dateFormat.parse(dateString.substring(dateString.indexOf(" ") + 1));