String to Date Time conversion issue

[maddogmayhem]

Hi All,
Looking for some assistance with a conversion issue.
My data source has dates in the following format: 13/09/2020 12:00:00 AM
In the StringToDateTime node I am using the custom pattern of dd/MM/yyyy h:mm:ss a
Have also tried dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss a
The error is saying Text could not be parsed at index 20.
The hour component is 1-12 and the date is for Australia so dd/MM
Cheers

[elsamuel]

Welcome to the forum @maddogmayhem.

This is a strange problem. Your first pattern works for me with no issues:

Can you upload your data and worklfow? The character at index 20 is the “A” in “AM”, so maybe there’s something strange happening there, or with your Date format as typed.

[maddogmayhem]

Thanks elsamuel. I changed the locale from en-AU to en-US and it worked fine. I’m not sure why the locale matters here but it works.
Thanks again.

[takbb]

Hi @maddogmayhem , I think the issue you were having is described here, where different locales require a different case for the AM/PM. It’s one of those cases with Java where I have a “what were they thinking?” moment.

String to Date&Time worked on previous knime version but having issues with current version (4.4.1)

BUT… in spite of my previous reply you are right @Sajith !! I was surprised about the case of the AM/PM, as I thought it should be upper case, so I just went and tried it in KNIME 4.3.4 Using the format mask dd/MM/yyyy h:mm a KNIME 4.3.4, converts 16/09/2021 6:07 PM KNIME 4.4.1 converts 16/09/2021 6:07 pm They both complain about the opposite case. (I was testing this using locale en-AU as per the screenshot. The result of other locales may vary I guess) Likewise the “a” in the “Date & T…

I never understood why Java “cares” about the case used. It’s like the designers just wanted to make life difficult for us. It wouldn’t be so bad if we could just convert the whole date time string to upper or lower case, but it insists on mixed case which in my view is the worst design they could have come up with… but alas it is what it is…

[maddogmayhem]

Thanks takbb, that makes a lot of sense now. I made the date string lowercase and it works with en-AU locale.