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How to format LocalDate to ISO 8601 with T and Z?

I'm trying to generate a random date and time, and convert it to the "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'" format.
Here is what I have tried:
public static String generateRandomDateAndTimeInString() {
LocalDate date = LocalDate.now().minus(Period.ofDays((new Random().nextInt(365 * 70))));
System.out.println("date and time :: " + date.toString());
return formatDate(date) ;
}
public static String formatDate(LocalDate date){
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'");
return dateFormat.format(date);
}
But in the line dateFormat.format(date), it complains with:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Cannot format given Object as a Date
The second problem is that, the output of print does not contain the time:
date :: 1998-12-24
I don't know how to get it to work.

Never format the java.time types using SimpleDateFormat
Using the SimpleDateFormat, you are supposed to format only legacy date-time types e.g. java.util.Date. In order to format the java.time date-time types, you need to use DateTimeFormatter.
Never enclose Z within single quotes
It's a blunder to enclose Z within single quotes in a format. The symbol Z stands for zulu and specifies UTC+00:00. If you enclose it within single quotes, it will simply mean character literal, Z and won't function as UTC+00:00 on parsing.
You do not need to use a formatter explicitly
For this requirement, you do not need to use a formatter explicitly because the OffsetDateTime#toString already returns the string in the format that you need. However, if the number of seconds in an OffsetDateTime object is zero, the same and the subsequent smaller units are truncated by OffsetDateTime#toString. If you need the full format irrespective of the value of seconds, then, of course, you will have to use DateTimeFormatter.
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Period;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.util.Random;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println(generateRandomDateAndTimeInString());
}
public static String generateRandomDateAndTimeInString() {
LocalDate date = LocalDate.now().minus(Period.ofDays((new Random().nextInt(365 * 70))));
System.out.println("date and time :: " + date.toString());
return formatDate(date);
}
public static String formatDate(LocalDate date) {
DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssX");
// return date.atStartOfDay().atOffset(ZoneOffset.UTC).toString();
return date.atStartOfDay().atOffset(ZoneOffset.UTC).format(dtf);
}
}
A sample run:
date and time :: 1996-09-05
1996-09-05T00:00:00Z
Note that the date-time API of java.util and their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat are outdated and error-prone. It is recommended to stop using them completely and switch to the modern date-time API.
For any reason, if you have to stick to Java 6 or Java 7, you can use ThreeTen-Backport which backports most of the java.time functionality to Java 6 & 7.
If you are working for an Android project and your Android API level is still not compliant with Java-8, check Java 8+ APIs available through desugaring and How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project.
Learn more about the modern date-time API from Trail: Date Time.
If you still need to use SimpleDateFormat for whatsoever reason:
Convert LocalDate to ZonedDateTime with ZoneOffset.UTC and at the start of the day ➡️ Convert ZonedDateTime to Instant ➡️ Obtain java.util.Date object from Instant.
public static String formatDate(LocalDate date) {
Date utilDate = Date.from(date.atStartOfDay(ZoneOffset.UTC).toInstant());
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssX");
return dateFormat.format(utilDate);
}

If you want to ignore the time part then you can use ZonedDateTime like this:
DateTimeFormatter dateFormat = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");
return ZonedDateTime.of(
date,
LocalTime.MIN,
ZoneId.of("Europe/Paris")
).format(dateFormat);
Output example
2013-10-19T00:00:00+0200
Or much better, you can use just toString to get a formatted date as a String with the default format of ZonedDateTime:
return ZonedDateTime.of(
date,
LocalTime.MIN,
ZoneId.of("Europe/Paris")
).toString();
Output
2013-10-19T00:00+02:00[Europe/Paris]
Note
This date are always with 00:00:00 for time part, because we are using LocalTime.MIN
Also, you can change the ZoneId to the expected Zone, this was just an example.
Important
DateFormat and SimpleDateFormat are legacy library, so please don't mix them with the java.time library, in the top you are using LocalDate which mean you are using this java.time library so keep going with it in all your code.

ZoneOffset utc = ZoneOffset.UTC;
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now(utc);
LocalDate seventyYearsAgo = today.minusYears(70);
int totalDays = Math.toIntExact(ChronoUnit.DAYS.between(seventyYearsAgo, today));
LocalDate date = today.minusDays(new Random().nextInt(totalDays));
String dateString = date.atStartOfDay(utc).toString();
System.out.println("date and time :: " + dateString);
Example output:
date and time :: 1983-08-24T00:00Z
Points to note:
Let java.time convert from years to days. It gives more readable and more correct code (a year is not always 365 days).
To have time of day and UTC offset in the string, convert a ZonedDateTime or an OffsetDateTime since such objects hold time of day and offset. A LocalDate does not. It’s a date without time of day and without offset from UTC. The Z you asked for denotes an offset of 0 from UTC.
If you want hours, minutes and seconds in the output too, you can have that by counting seconds rather than days. In this case use OffsetDateTime for the entire operation (or ZonedDateTime if in a time zone different from UTC).
ZoneOffset utc = ZoneOffset.UTC;
OffsetDateTime today = OffsetDateTime.now(utc).truncatedTo(ChronoUnit.SECONDS);
OffsetDateTime seventyYearsAgo = today.minusYears(70);
long totalSeconds = ChronoUnit.SECONDS.between(seventyYearsAgo, today);
OffsetDateTime date = today.minusSeconds(ThreadLocalRandom.current().nextLong(0, totalSeconds));
String dateString = date.toString();
System.out.println("date and time :: " + dateString);
date and time :: 1996-09-21T06:49:56Z
I am using ThreadLocalRandom because it can generate a random long value in a specified interval. Funnily ThreadLocalRandom has a lot of convenient methods that Random hasn’t got.

Retrieving a DateTime Using resultset into a DateTime field [duplicate]

I'm retrieving a timestamp object from a database using ResultSet.getTimestamp(), but I'd like an easy way to get the date in the format of MM/DD/YYYY and the time in a format of HH:MM xx. I was tinkering around, it it looks as though I can do such by making use of the Date and/or DateTime objects within Java. Is that the best way to go, or do I even need to convert the timestamp to accomplish this? Any recommendations would be helpful.
....
while(resultSet.next()) {
Timestamp dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Timestamp dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
....
}
....

import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
Date date = new Date(timestamp.getTime());
// S is the millisecond
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy' 'HH:mm:ss:S");
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(timestamp));
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));
}
}

java.sql.Timestamp is a subclass of java.util.Date. So, just upcast it.
Date dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Date dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
Using SimpleDateFormat and creating Joda DateTime should be straightforward from this point on.

java.time
Modern answer: use java.time, the modern Java date and time API, for your date and time work. Back in 2011 it was right to use the Timestamp class, but since JDBC 4.2 it is no longer advised.
For your work we need a time zone and a couple of formatters. We may as well declare them static:
static ZoneId zone = ZoneId.of("America/Marigot");
static DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/uuuu");
static DateTimeFormatter timeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm xx");
Now the code could be for example:
while(resultSet.next()) {
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", OffsetDateTime.class)
.atZoneSameInstant(zone);
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
String dateFormatted = dtStart.format(dateFormatter);
String timeFormatted = dtStart.format(timeFormatter);
System.out.format("Date: %s; time: %s%n", dateFormatted, timeFormatted);
}
Example output (using the time your question was asked):
Date: 09/20/2011; time: 18:13 -0400
In your database timestamp with time zone is recommended for timestamps. If this is what you’ve got, retrieve an OffsetDateTime as I am doing in the code. I am also converting the retrieved value to the user’s time zone before formatting date and time separately. As time zone I supplied America/Marigot as an example, please supply your own. You may also leave out the time zone conversion if you don’t want any, of course.
If the datatype in SQL is a mere timestamp without time zone, retrieve a LocalDateTime instead. For example:
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", LocalDateTime.class)
.atZone(zone);
No matter the details I trust you to do similarly for dtEnd.
I wasn’t sure what you meant by the xx in HH:MM xx. I just left it in the format pattern string, which yields the UTC offset in hours and minutes without colon.
Link: Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.

You can also get DateTime object from timestamp, including your current daylight saving time:
public DateTime getDateTimeFromTimestamp(Long value) {
TimeZone timeZone = TimeZone.getDefault();
long offset = timeZone.getOffset(value);
if (offset < 0) {
value -= offset;
} else {
value += offset;
}
return new DateTime(value);
}

LocalDateTime dtStart = rs.getTimestamp("dtStart").toLocalDateTime();
Converts this Timestamp object to a code LocalDateTime.
The conversion creates a code LocalDateTime that represents the
same year, month, day of month, hours, minutes, seconds and nanos
date-time value as this code Timestamp in the local time zone.
since 1.8

How to convert two String variables to date and timestamp column to insert into database

I need your help in getting the proper format to insert the date and time informaiton which is retrieved from two different string variables from the database and to insert them (date and time) into Date and Time column in an another table. The date is retrieved from the agreement date column which is:
String agreement_date = "";
agreement_date=rs.getString("agr_date"); //format DD-MON-YYYY ex. 22-May-2014
And the time is retrieved from:
String frm_time = rs.getString("FRM_TIME"); //format HH:MI ex.7:20
So now I need to combine both columns into one variable and to insert them in database column called transaction_dt_time and its type is dateTime(format dd/MM/YYYY HH:MI:SS AM/PM), So how can I do that?

You can concatenate these strings into datetime string and convert to date using SimpleDateFormat for example
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm");
Date dateToInsert = format.parse(concatenatedDate);

I understand you are fetching the values in the resultset from a database. generally date and time are stored in database according to the datatype. Recommend to use a rs.getDate() and rs.getTime() to fetch these values instead of a String datatype.
Here is a sample code for your conversion
import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try{
String date = "22-May-2015";
String time = "7:20";
String yourString = date+ " "+ time;
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm");
Date parsedDate = dateFormat.parse(yourString);
Timestamp timestamp = new java.sql.Timestamp(parsedDate.getTime());
System.out.println(timestamp);
}catch(Exception e){
e.printStackTrace();
//this generic but you can control another types of exception
// look the origin of excption
}
}
}
Hope this helps!

use a simpledateformat() for the time, is your time 24hours? how do we know if it's AM or PM?
SimpleDateFormat sdfTime = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:MI:SS"); //AM/PM?
String strTime = sdfTime.format(frm_time);
final_date = agreement_date.replaceAll("-","/");
String FinalDate = final_date + strTime;

You may use JPA 2.1 and its AttributeConverter interface

java.time
The other answers use legacy date-time classes, now supplanted by the java.time framework built into Java 8 and later.
First, parse the date portion.
DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "mm-DD-yyyy" );
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.parse( "22-May-2014" , dateFormatter );
Second, parse the time portion.
DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "h:m" );
LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.parse( "7:20" , dateFormatter );
Third, determine the time zone in which this value has meaning. Is this a Montréal time, a Paris time, or a Kolkata time?
ZoneId zoneId = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
Combine into a ZonedDateTime.
ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.of( localDate , localTime , zoneId );
You may be able to pass this ZonedDateTime to your database via the setObject method on a PreparedStatement with a JDBC 4.2 compliant driver. But if not, convert into the old java.sql.Timestamp type. That old class has a new method to facilitate conversion, which takes an Instant object. An Instant is a moment on the timeline in UTC with a resolution of nanoseconds. We can extract an Instant from our ZonedDateTime.
Instant instant = zdt.toInstant();
java.sql.Timestamp ts = java.sql.Timestamp.from( instant );
On your PreparedStatement, call setTimestamp.

How to apply timezone when formatting DateTime?

I have a datetime as 2011-01-11 01:51:10 and timezone as America/Los_Angeles
I want to get a localised date time for this value. This is what I do
val formatter1: DateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("y-M-d H:m:s");
val m1: LocalDateTime = LocalDateTime.parse("2011-01-11 01:51:10", formatter1);
println("DateTime: " + m1.atZone(ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles")))
The value that I get is
DateTime: 2011-01-11T01:51:10-08:00[America/Los_Angeles]
How do I convert it into localized datetime with -08:00 offset applied to it and no [America/Los_Angeles]?

You first have to specify which timezone that the time which you have parsed is in. Then specify an other one to convert into.
DateTimeFormatter formatter1 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("y-M-d H:m:s");
LocalDateTime m1 = LocalDateTime.parse("2011-01-11 01:51:10", formatter1);
ZonedDateTime z1 = m1.atZone(ZoneId.of("UTC"));
ZonedDateTime z2 = z1.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles"));
System.out.println(z2.format(DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME));

Looks like you are using java.time API which has a ZonedDateTime. You should probably use it instead of LocalDateTime, since that LocalDateTime does not have a time zone. From the docs:
A date without a time-zone in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2007-12-03.
This class does not store or represent a time or time-zone. Instead, it is a description of the date, as used for birthdays. It cannot represent an instant on the time-line without additional information such as an offset or time-zone.
And then, ZonedDateTime docs states that:
A date-time with a time-zone in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2007-12-03T10:15:30+01:00 Europe/Paris.
This class handles conversion from the local time-line of LocalDateTime to the instant time-line of Instant. The difference between the two time-lines is the offset from UTC/Greenwich, represented by a ZoneOffset.
Using a ZonedDateTime, your code would be like:
import java.time._
import java.time.format._
val zoneId = ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles")
val formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("y-M-d H:m:s").withZone(zoneId)
val zdt = ZonedDateTime.parse("2011-01-11 01:51:10", formatter)
The result you will see at the console will be:
zdt: java.time.ZonedDateTime = 2011-01-11T01:51:10-08:00[America/Los_Angeles]
That happens because you are using the default toString method of ZonedDateTime and looks like the DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME is exactly what you want. So your code should be:
import java.time._
import java.time.format._
val zoneId = ZoneId.of("America/Los_Angeles")
val formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("y-M-d H:m:s").withZone(zoneId)
val zdt = ZonedDateTime.parse("2011-01-11 01:51:10", formatter)
val formatted: String = zdt.format(DateTimeFormatter.ISO_OFFSET_DATE_TIME)

Please look into my complete answer for this. Answer
String dateTime = "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss";
String date = "09/17/2017 20:53:31";
Integer gmtPSTOffset = -8;
ZoneOffset offset = ZoneOffset.ofHours(gmtPSTOffset);
// String to LocalDateTime
LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.parse(date, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(dateTime));
// Set the generated LocalDateTime's TimeZone. In this case I set it to UTC
ZonedDateTime ldtUTC = ldt.atZone(ZoneOffset.UTC);
System.out.println("UTC time with Timezone : "+ldtUTC);
// Convert above UTC to PST. You can pass ZoneOffset or ZoneId for 2nd parameter
LocalDateTime ldtPST = LocalDateTime.ofInstant(ldtUTC.toInstant(), offset);
System.out.println("PST time without offset : "+ldtPST);
// If you want UTC time with timezone
ZoneId zoneId = ZoneId.of( "America/Los_Angeles" );
ZonedDateTime zdtPST = ldtUTC.toLocalDateTime().atZone(zoneId);
System.out.println("PST time with Offset and TimeZone : "+zdtPST);

probably what you want is to get UTC time and then apply timezone offset to it.
It's quite easy to do with Joda time. For example:
DateTime.now().minus(timezoneOffset)
where timezoneOffset is int that will represent time shift at your location. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Timezone conversion

I need to convert from one timezone to another timezone in my project.
I am able to convert from my current timezone to another but not from a different timezone to another.
For example I am in India, and I am able to convert from India to US using Date d=new Date(); and assigning it to a calendar object and setting the time zone.
However, I cannot do this from different timezone to another timezone. For example, I am in India, but I am having trouble converting timezones from the US to the UK.

tl;dr
ZonedDateTime.now( ZoneId.of( "Pacific/Auckland" )) // Current moment in a particular time zone.
.withZoneSameInstant( ZoneId.of( "Asia/Kolkata" )) // Same moment adjusted into another time zone.
Details
The java.util.Date class has no time zone assigned†, yet it's toString implementation confusingly applies the JVM's current default time zone.
Avoid java.util.Date & .Calendar
This is one of many reasons to avoid the notoriously troublesome java.util.Date, .Calendar, and SimpleDateFormat classes bundled with Java. Avoid them. Instead use either:
The java.time package built into Java 8 and inspired by Joda-Time.
Joda-Time
java.time
Java 8 and later has the java.time package built-in. This package was inspired by Joda-Time. While they share some similarities and class names, they are different; each has features the other lacks. One notable difference is that java.time avoids constructors, instead uses static instantiation methods. Both frameworks are led by the same man, Stephen Colbourne.
Much of the java.time functionality has been back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in the ThreeTen-Backport project. Further adapted to Android in the ThreeTenABP project.
In the case of this Question, they work in the same fashion. Specify a time zone, and call a now method to get current moment, then create a new instance based on the old immutable instance to adjust for time zone.
Note the two different time zone classes. One is a named time zone including all the rules for Daylight Saving Time and other such anomalies plus an offset from UTC while the other is only the offset.
ZoneId zoneMontréal = ZoneId.of("America/Montreal");
ZonedDateTime nowMontréal = ZonedDateTime.now ( zoneMontréal );
ZoneId zoneTokyo = ZoneId.of("Asia/Tokyo");
ZonedDateTime nowTokyo = nowMontréal.withZoneSameInstant( zoneTokyo );
ZonedDateTime nowUtc = nowMontréal.withZoneSameInstant( ZoneOffset.UTC );
Joda-Time
Some example code in Joda-Time 2.3 follows. Search StackOveflow for many more examples and much discussion.
DateTimeZone timeZoneLondon = DateTimeZone.forID( "Europe/London" );
DateTimeZone timeZoneKolkata = DateTimeZone.forID( "Asia/Kolkata" );
DateTimeZone timeZoneNewYork = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/New_York" );
DateTime nowLondon = DateTime.now( timeZoneLondon ); // Assign a time zone rather than rely on implicit default time zone.
DateTime nowKolkata = nowLondon.withZone( timeZoneKolkata );
DateTime nowNewYork = nowLondon.withZone( timeZoneNewYork );
DateTime nowUtc = nowLondon.withZone( DateTimeZone.UTC ); // Built-in constant for UTC.
We have four representations of the same moment in the timeline of the Universe.
†Actually the java.util.Date class does have a time zone buried within its source code. But the class ignores that time zone for most practical purposes. So, as shorthand, it’s often said that j.u.Date has no time zone assigned. Confusing? Yes. Avoid the mess that is j.u.Date and go with Joda-Time and/or java.time.

Some examples
Convert time between timezone
Converting Times Between Time Zones
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import java.util.TimeZone;
public class TimeZoneExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Create a calendar object and set it time based on the local
// time zone
Calendar localTime = Calendar.getInstance();
localTime.set(Calendar.HOUR, 17);
localTime.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 15);
localTime.set(Calendar.SECOND, 20);
int hour = localTime.get(Calendar.HOUR);
int minute = localTime.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int second = localTime.get(Calendar.SECOND);
// Print the local time
System.out.printf("Local time : %02d:%02d:%02d\n", hour, minute, second);
// Create a calendar object for representing a Germany time zone. Then we
// wet the time of the calendar with the value of the local time
Calendar germanyTime = new GregorianCalendar(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Berlin"));
germanyTime.setTimeInMillis(localTime.getTimeInMillis());
hour = germanyTime.get(Calendar.HOUR);
minute = germanyTime.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
second = germanyTime.get(Calendar.SECOND);
// Print the local time in Germany time zone
System.out.printf("Germany time: %02d:%02d:%02d\n", hour, minute, second);
}
}

Date date = new Date();
String formatPattern = ....;
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(formatPattern);
TimeZone T1;
TimeZone T2;
// set the Calendar of sdf to timezone T1
sdf.setTimeZone(T1);
System.out.println(sdf.format(date));
// set the Calendar of sdf to timezone T2
sdf.setTimeZone(T2);
System.out.println(sdf.format(date));
// Use the 'calOfT2' instance-methods to get specific info
// about the time-of-day for date 'date' in timezone T2.
Calendar calOfT2 = sdf.getCalendar();

The "default" time zone can be avoided entirely by just setting the time zone appropriately for the Calendar object. However, I would personally suggest that you use Joda Time as a far superior API for date and time operations in Java. Amongst other things, time zone conversion is very simple in Joda.
It's not clear what your current code looks like and why you're only able to convert via the default time zone, but in Joda Time you'd just specify the time zone explicitly when creating (say) a DateTime object, and then use withZone(DateTimeZone zone).
If you could tell us more about how you're getting input data, we could give a fuller example.

You can use the following code snippet
String dateString = "14 Jul 2014 00:11:04 CEST";
date = formatter.parse(dateString);
System.out.println(formatter.format(date));
// Set the formatter to use a different timezone - Indochina Time
formatter.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Asia/Bangkok"));
System.out.println("ICT time : "+formatter.format(date));

If you don't want to use Joda, here is a deterministic way using the built in libraries.
First off I recommend that you force your JVM to default to a timezone. This addresses the issues you might run into as you move your JVM from one machine to another that are set to different timezones but your source data is always a particular timezone. For example, lets say your data is always PDT/PST time zone, but you run on a box that is set to UTC timezone.
The following code snippet sets the default timezone in my JVM:
//You can either pass the JVM a parameter that
//enforces a TZ: java -Duser.timezone=UTC or you can do it
//programatically like this
TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("America/Los_Angeles");
TimeZone.setDefault(tz);
Now lets say your source date is coming in as PDT/PST but you need to convert it to UTC. These are the steps:
DateFormat dateFormatUtc = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
dateFormatUtc.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
String dateStrInPDT = "2016-05-19 10:00:00";
Date dateInPDT = dateFormat.parse(dateStrInPDT);
String dateInUtc = dateFormatUtc.format(dateInPDT);
System.out.println("Date In UTC is " + dateInUtc);
The output would be:
Date In UTC is 2016-05-19 17:00:00

java.time
The java.util Date-Time API and their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat are outdated and error-prone. It is recommended to stop using them completely and switch to the modern Date-Time API*.
Also, quoted below is a notice at the Home Page of Joda-Time:
Note that from Java SE 8 onwards, users are asked to migrate to java.time (JSR-310) - a core part of the JDK which replaces this project.
How to switch to the modern API?
Convert java.util.Date to Instant using Date#toInstant e.g.
Date date = new Date();
Instant instant = date.toInstant();
System.out.println(instant); // 2021-05-30T13:10:01.890Z
What's Instant got to do with my requirement?
An Instant represents an instantaneous point on the timeline in UTC. The Z in the sample output is the timezone designator for a zero-timezone offset. It stands for Zulu and specifies the Etc/UTC timezone (which has the timezone offset of +00:00 hours). Its zero-timezone offset makes it independent of timezones i.e. an instant is the same at every place in the world. It's analogous to water in the physical world.
You can mix a timezone (i.e. ZoneId) with an Instant by calling Instant.atZone to get the corresponding Date-Time in that timezone (i.e. ZonedDateTime).
Similarly, you can mix a timezone offset (i.e. ZoneOffset) with an Instant by calling Instant#atOffset to get the corresponding Date-Time with that timezone offset (i.e. OffsetDateTime).
In the reverse way, you can also get an Instant by calling toInstant on the ZonedDateTime or OffsetDateTime.
import java.time.Instant;
import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.util.Date;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Date date = new Date();
Instant instant = date.toInstant();
System.out.println(instant);
// The corresponding Date-Time in Chicago
ZonedDateTime zdtChicago = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of("America/Chicago"));
System.out.println(zdtChicago);
// The corresponding Date-Time in Kolkata
ZonedDateTime zdtKolkata = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));
System.out.println(zdtKolkata);
// The corresponding Date-Time at timezone offset of -05:00 hours
OffsetDateTime odtAtOffsetMinus0500 = instant.atOffset(ZoneOffset.of("-05:00"));
System.out.println(odtAtOffsetMinus0500);
// The corresponding Date-Time at timezone offset of +05:30 hours
OffsetDateTime odtAtOffset0530 = instant.atOffset(ZoneOffset.of("+05:30"));
System.out.println(odtAtOffset0530);
}
}
Output:
2021-05-30T13:44:26.599Z
2021-05-30T08:44:26.599-05:00[America/Chicago]
2021-05-30T19:14:26.599+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]
2021-05-30T08:44:26.599-05:00
2021-05-30T19:14:26.599+05:30
So far you have learnt a simple way to convert an Instant (which you have created directly or obtained from a java.util.Date or a ZonedDateTime or an OffsetDateTime) to a Date-Time in any timezone or at any timezone offset.
Alternatively
There is another way to convert a ZonedDateTime from one timezone to another. Again, there is a similar method to convert an OffsetDateTime from one timezone offset to another.
import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Current Date-Time in Chicago
ZonedDateTime zdtChicago = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("America/Chicago"));
System.out.println(zdtChicago);
// The corresponding Date-Time in Kolkata
ZonedDateTime zdtKolkata = zdtChicago.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));
System.out.println(zdtKolkata);
// Current Date-Time at a timezone offset of -05:00 hours
OffsetDateTime odtAtOffsetMinus0500 = OffsetDateTime.now(ZoneOffset.of("-05:00"));
System.out.println(odtAtOffsetMinus0500);
// The corresponding Date-Time at timezone offset of +05:30 hours
OffsetDateTime odtAtOffset0530 = odtAtOffsetMinus0500.withOffsetSameInstant(ZoneOffset.of("+05:30"));
System.out.println(odtAtOffset0530);
}
}
Output:
2021-05-30T10:03:59.895923-05:00[America/Chicago]
2021-05-30T20:33:59.895923+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]
2021-05-30T10:03:59.897782-05:00
2021-05-30T20:33:59.897782+05:30
When to use ZonedDateTime and when to use OffsetDateTime?
If you are dealing with a fixed timezone offset value e.g. 02:00 hours, use OffsetDateTime. It is also supported by all JDBC drivers. Check this answer to learn more about it.
If you want the timezone offset to change automatically based on DST, use ZonedDateTime. Unfortunately, ZonedDateTime is not supported by JDBC.
Learn more about java.time, the modern Date-Time API* from Trail: Date Time.
* For any reason, if you have to stick to Java 6 or Java 7, you can use ThreeTen-Backport which backports most of the java.time functionality to Java 6 & 7. If you are working for an Android project and your Android API level is still not compliant with Java-8, check Java 8+ APIs available through desugaring and How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project.

You could use the java.time.ZoneDateTime#ofInstant() method:
import java.time.*;
public class TimeZonesConversion {
static ZonedDateTime convert(ZonedDateTime time, ZoneId newTimeZone) {
return ZonedDateTime.ofInstant(
time.toInstant(),
newTimeZone);
};
public static void main(String... args) {
ZonedDateTime mstTime = ZonedDateTime.of(LocalDateTime.now(), ZoneId.of("-07"));
ZonedDateTime localTime = convert(mstTime, Clock.systemDefaultZone().getZone());
System.out.println("MST(" + mstTime + ") = " + localTime);
}
}

Depends on what you really mean by "converting".
It MAY be as simple as setting the time zone in the FORMATTER, and not mucking with Calendar at all.
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
TimeZone tzUTC = TimeZone.getTimeZone( "UTC" );
TimeZone tzPST = TimeZone.getTimeZone( "PST8PDT" );
DateFormat dtfmt = new SimpleDateFormat( "EEE, yyyy-MM-dd KK:mm a z" );
dtfmt.setTimeZone( tzUTC );
System.out.println( "UTC: " + dtfmt.format( cal.getTime() ));
dtfmt.setTimeZone( tzPST );
System.out.println( "PST: " + dtfmt.format( cal.getTime() ));

This is not the answer, but could help someone trying to generate dates with same timezone and apply another timezone's offset.
It is useful when your application server is running in one timezone and your database in another.
public static Date toGreekTimezone (Date date) {
ZoneId greek = ZoneId.of(EUROPE_ATHENS);
ZonedDateTime greekDate = ZonedDateTime.ofInstant(date.toInstant(), greek);
ZoneId def = ZoneId.systemDefault();
ZonedDateTime defDate = greekDate.withZoneSameLocal(def);
return Date.from(defDate.toInstant());
}

You can do something like this to get the current time in another time zone.
Calendar japanCal = new GregorianCalendar(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Japan"));
japanCal.setTimeInMillis(local.getTimeInMillis());

here a story:
my user in US enters a date in a web page. My server gets this as a java.util.Date object. Date objects have no notion of time zone.
so let's say user entered 11PM(== 4AM london time). For her this was 11PM US time.
Your server gets this and interprets this as 11PM of JVM's timezone.
but what you need is a Date object that represents 4AM.
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
String timeStringInUS = sdf.format("2020-05-04 23:00:00");
SimpleDateFormat dateFormatInUS = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
SimpleDateFormat dateFormatInUK = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
dateFormatInUS.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("America/New_York"));
dateFormatInUK.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
Date dateInUS = dateFormatInUS.parse(timeStringInUS);
Date dateInUK = sdf.parse(dateFormatInUK.format(dateInUS));

public static String convertTimeBasedOnTimeZoneAndTimePattern(String dateTime,
String fromTimeZone, String toTimeZone, String originalTimePattern, String timePattern) {
DateTimeFormatter formatterNew = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(timePattern);
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(originalTimePattern);
TemporalAccessor temporalAccessor = formatter.parse(dateTime);
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of(fromTimeZone);
LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.from(temporalAccessor);
ZonedDateTime zonedDateTime = ZonedDateTime.of(localDateTime, z);
Instant instant = Instant.from(zonedDateTime);
ZonedDateTime fromZonedDateTime = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of(toTimeZone));
String fromZoneDateTime = fromZonedDateTime.format(formatterNew);
return fromZoneDateTime;}
To convert any time to the specific timezone (for example: UTC -> local timezone and vise versa) with any time pattern you can use java.time library.
This method will take time patterns (original and required format) and timezone (original time zone and required timezone) will give String as output. you can convert String to date by using SimpleDateFormatter or also use parse method of the ZoneDateTime/Instant class.
To convert String to date:
public static final DATE_FORMAT="yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSSSS";
public static Date convertStringToDate(String date) {
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
Date parsedDate = null;
try {
parsedDate = formatter.parse(date);
} catch (Exception e) {
throw new DateTimeParseException("Please provide date time in proper format", null, 0, null);
}
return parsedDate;
}
To convert date to String:
public String convertTextDateToDate(Date textDate) {
// SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EE MMM dd HH:mm:ss z yyyy", //Locale.ENGLISH);
SimpleDateFormat date = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
String dateFormatted = date.format(textDate);
return dateFormatted;
}