How to check if a string contains a date in Java?

Question

How do I check if a string contains a date of this form:

Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 7:36pm EST

The data I\'m working with contains

Answer 1

If you don't want to use Regex you may do something like this (I know it is a pain but just a different approach).

public class ParseDate {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String date = "Rahul Chowdhury Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 7:36pm EST";
        //Pattern: "Fullname EEEEE, MMM dd, yyyy 'at' hh:mmaa z"
        String dateComponents[] = date.split(",");
        String fullName = dateComponents[0].substring(0, dateComponents[0].lastIndexOf(" "));
        String dayText = dateComponents[0].substring(dateComponents[0].lastIndexOf(" "));
        String month = dateComponents[1].trim().split(" ")[0];
        String dayNumber = dateComponents[1].trim().split(" ")[1];
        String year = dateComponents[2].split("at")[0];
        String time = dateComponents[2].split("at")[1].trim().split(" ")[0];
        String zone =dateComponents[2].split("at")[1].trim().split(" ")[1];

        // if you want to go further 
        String hour = time.split(":")[0];
        String minutes = time.split(":")[1].substring(0,2);
        String aa = time.split(":")[1].substring(2,4);


        System.out.println(fullName + " " + dayText + " " + month + " " + dayNumber + " " + year + " " + time + " " + zone);
        System.out.println(hour + " " + minutes + " " + aa);
    }


}

Output

Rahul Chowdhury Sunday January 15  2012  7:36pm EST
7 36 pm