title: Java simpledateformat Unparseable date, even though the format appears to be right
body: <p>I've got a silly problem, here's my code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss zZ",Locale.US);
  System.out.println(dateFormat.format(new Date()));
  try {
      wou.setDateStart(dateFormat.parse(date));
      wou.setDateEnd(dateFormat.parse(date));
  } catch (ParseException e) {
      System.out.println(e.getCause() + " " + e.getMessage());
      e.printStackTrace();
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>the result is following:</p>
  
  <p>Fri Jun 05 2015 15:34:29 GMT+0000</p>
  
  <p>null Unparseable date: "Fri Jun 05 2015 17:30:00 GMT+0000"</p>
  
  <p>What's wrong with my format? It outputs the current date in the same format as the date I want to parse, but keeps telling me that the date is unparseable...</p>
  
  <p>I'm struggling that for over an hour and I'm completely lost...</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>I have no control over the date I need to parse (if I did, I would change it in a source to a format that I could consume)</p>
  
  <p>Following code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>String date = request.getParameter("absencyDate");
  SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE MMM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss z",Locale.US);
  try {
      System.out.println(dateFormat.format(new Date()));
      System.out.println(date);
      System.out.println(dateFormat.parse(date));
  } catch (ParseException e1) {
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Produces same error:</p>
  
  <p>Fri Jun 05 2015 16:09:15 GMT</p>
  
  <p>Fri Jun 05 2015 12:30:00 GMT+0000</p>
  
  <p>java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "Fri Jun 05 2015 12:30:00 GMT+0000"</p>