java - Gson to json conversion with two DateFormat

Question

My server JSON is returning with two different type of DateFormat. "MMM dd, yyyy" and "MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss"

When I convert the JSON with the following it is fine:

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setDateFormat("MMM dd, yyyy").create();

But when I want the detailed date format and changed it to this, it throws exception com.google.gson.JsonSyntaxException: Mar 21, 2013

Gson gson = new GsonBuilder().setDateFormat("MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss").create();

Is there a way for gson to handle two different DateFormat for its Json conversion?

Answer 1

I was facing the same issue. Here is my solution via custom deserialization:

new GsonBuilder().registerTypeAdapter(Date.class, new DateDeserializer());

private static final String[] DATE_FORMATS = new String[] {
        "MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss",
        "MMM dd, yyyy"
};


private class DateDeserializer implements JsonDeserializer<Date> {

    @Override
    public Date deserialize(JsonElement jsonElement, Type typeOF,
            JsonDeserializationContext context) throws JsonParseException {
        for (String format : DATE_FORMATS) {
            try {
                return new SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.US).parse(jsonElement.getAsString());
            } catch (ParseException e) {
            }
        }
        throw new JsonParseException("Unparseable date: "" + jsonElement.getAsString()
                + "". Supported formats: " + Arrays.toString(DATE_FORMATS));
    }
}