Comparing dates with months as strings-CodePudding

I am trying to compare these two dates :

17 Oct. 2019 (08:23)
19 déc. 2019 (21:15)

The months are in French and the main problem is the months. Do I need to put an if statement for every type of month so I can switch it with the appropriate month? For example:

if (MonthValue.equals("oct."){
    DateValue.replace("oct.","10");
}

Or is there an easier solution, because I need to check in a table if the first value is bigger than the second one.

Edit : My new Code :

String target1 = "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)";
        String target2 = "19 déc. 2019 (21:15)";
        DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM. YYYY (kk:mm)", Locale.FRENCH);
        Date result =  df.parse(target1);  
        Date result2 =  df.parse(target2); 
        System.out.println(result);
        System.out.println(result2);
        if(result.compareTo(result2) < 0) {
            System.out.println("true");
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("false");
        }

Doesn't work gives this error:

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)"

CodePudding user response：

Using DateTimeFormatter with pattern dd MMM yyyy (HH:mm) to parse the date string like this

String target1 = "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)";
String target2 = "19 déc. 2019 (21:15)";

Locale locale = Locale.FRANCE;
DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder().appendPattern("dd MMM yyyy (HH:mm)")
        .toFormatter(locale);
LocalDateTime dateTime1 = LocalDateTime.parse(target1, dateTimeFormatter);
LocalDateTime dateTime2 = LocalDateTime.parse(target2, dateTimeFormatter);

System.out.println(dateTime1);
System.out.println(dateTime2);
if (dateTime1.compareTo(dateTime2) < 0) {
    System.out.println("true");
} else {
    System.out.println("false");
}

CodePudding user response：

My recommendation:

parse the dates e.g. with a DateTimeFormatter to e.g. a LocalDateTime
compare the parsed dates (most date and time objects implement https://docs.oracle.com/en/java/javase/17/docs/api/java.base/java/lang/Comparable.html)

CodePudding user response：

What I've got from your question is that you want to convert Month's names to their respective numbers. If this is the case, then you should try switch
Example:

switch (MonthValue){
    case jan:
      MonthValue = 1; // Set Month variable to it Numbered Position (type casting might be required)
      break;
    case feb:
      MonthValue = 2;
      break;
    default:
      System.out.println("Somthing...");
}

CodePudding user response：

Try encoding to UTF8, which will avoid DateTimeParseException Exception in thread "main" java.time.format.DateTimeParseException: Text '19 d??c. 2019 (21:15)' could not be parsed at index 3

    public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
        String date1 = "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)";
        String date2 = "19 déc. 2019 (21:15)";
        
        DateTimeFormatter longDateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd MMM yyyy (HH:mm)").withLocale(Locale.FRENCH);
        LocalDateTime lclDate1 = LocalDateTime.parse(encodeUTF8(date1), longDateTimeFormatter);
        LocalDateTime lclDate2 = LocalDateTime.parse(encodeUTF8(date2), longDateTimeFormatter);
        if (lclDate1.compareTo(lclDate2) < 0) {
            System.out.println("true");
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("false");
        }
    }
    
    public static String encodeUTF8(String dateStr) {
        byte[] bytes = dateStr.getBytes();
        String utf8EncodStr = new String(bytes, StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
        return utf8EncodStr;
    }