title: Java SimpleDateFormat for time zone with a colon separator?
body: <p>I have a date in the following format: <code>2010-03-01T00:00:00-08:00</code></p>
  
  <p>I have thrown the following SimpleDateFormats at it to parse it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>private static final SimpleDateFormat[] FORMATS = {
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ"), //ISO8601 long RFC822 zone
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssz"), //ISO8601 long long form zone
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss"), //ignore timezone
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHHmmssZ"), //ISO8601 short
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMddHHmm"),
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd"), //birthdate from NIST IHE C32 sample
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMM"),
          new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy") //just the year
      };
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have a convenience method that uses those formats like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public static Date figureOutTheDamnDate(String wtf) {
      if (wtf == null) {
          return null;
      }
      Date retval = null;
      for (SimpleDateFormat sdf : FORMATS) {
          try {
              sdf.setLenient(false)
              retval = sdf.parse(wtf);
              System.out.println("Date:" + wtf + " hit on pattern:" + sdf.toPattern());
              break;
          } catch (ParseException ex) {
              retval = null;
              continue;
          }
      }
  
      return retval;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It seems to hit on the pattern <code>yyyyMMddHHmm</code> but returns the date as <code>Thu Dec 03 00:01:00 PST 2009</code>.</p>
  
  <p>What is the correct pattern to parse this date? </p>
  
  <p>UPDATE: I don't NEED the time zone parsing. I don't anticipate having time sensitive issues moving between zones, but how would I get the "-08:00" zone format to parse????</p>
  
  <p>Unit test:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Test
  public void test_date_parser() {
      System.out.println("\ntest_date_parser");
      //month is zero based, are you effing kidding me
      Calendar d = new GregorianCalendar(2000, 3, 6, 13, 00, 00);
      assertEquals(d.getTime(), MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("200004061300"));
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(1950, 0, 1).getTime(), MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("1950"));
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(1997, 0, 1).getTime(),  MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("199701"));
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(2010, 1, 25, 15, 19, 44).getTime(),   MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("20100225151944-0800"));
  
      //my machine happens to be in GMT-0800
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(2010, 1, 15, 13, 15, 00).getTime(),MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("2010-02-15T13:15:00-05:00"));
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(2010, 1, 15, 18, 15, 00).getTime(), MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("2010-02-15T18:15:00-05:00"));
  
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(2010, 2, 1).getTime(), MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("2010-03-01T00:00:00-08:00"));
      assertEquals(new GregorianCalendar(2010, 2, 1, 17, 0, 0).getTime(), MyClass.figureOutTheDamnDate("2010-03-01T17:00:00-05:00"));
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Output from unit test:</p>
  
  <pre><code>test_date_parser
  Date:200004061300 hit on pattern:yyyyMMddHHmm
  Date:1950 hit on pattern:yyyy
  Date:199701 hit on pattern:yyyyMM
  Date:20100225151944-0800 hit on pattern:yyyyMMddHHmmssZ
  Date:2010-02-15T13:15:00-05:00 hit on pattern:yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss
  Date:2010-02-15T18:15:00-05:00 hit on pattern:yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss
  Date:2010-03-01T00:00:00-08:00 hit on pattern:yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss
  Date:2010-03-01T17:00:00-05:00 hit on pattern:yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss
  </code></pre>