DateTime parse(String formattedString)

Constructs a new DateTime instance based on formattedString.

Throws a FormatException if the input cannot be parsed.

The function parses a subset of ISO 8601 which includes the subset accepted by RFC 3339.

The accepted inputs are currently:

  • A date: A signed four-to-six digit year, two digit month and two digit day, optionally separated by - characters. Examples: "19700101", "-0004-12-24", "81030-04-01".

  • An optional time part, separated from the date by either T or a space. The time part is a two digit hour, then optionally a two digit minutes value, then optionally a two digit seconds value, and then optionally a '.' followed by a one-to-six digit second fraction. The minuts and seconds may be separated from the previous parts by a ':'. Examples: "12", "12:30:24.124", "123010.50".

  • An optional time-zone offset part, possibly separated from the previous by a space. The time zone is either 'z' or 'Z', or it is a signed two digit hour part and an optional two digit minute part. The sign must be either "+" or "-", and can not be omitted. The minutes may be separted from the hours by a ':'. Examples: "Z", "-10", "01:30", "1130".

This includes the output of both toString and toIso8601String, which will be parsed back into a DateTime object with the same time as the original.

The result is always in either local time or UTC. If a time zone offset other than UTC is specified, the time is converted to the equivalent UTC time.

Examples of accepted strings:

  • "2012-02-27 13:27:00"
  • "2012-02-27 13:27:00.123456z"
  • "20120227 13:27:00"
  • "20120227T132700"
  • "20120227"
  • "+20120227"
  • "2012-02-27T14Z"
  • "2012-02-27T14+00:00"
  • "-123450101 00:00:00 Z": in the year -12345.
  • "2002-02-27T14:00:00-0500": Same as "2002-02-27T19:00:00Z"