java - Format Instant to String

Question

I'm trying to format an Instant to a String using the new java 8 time-api and a pattern:

Instant instant = ...;
String out = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss").format(instant);

Using the code above I get an Exception which complains an unsupported field:

java.time.temporal.UnsupportedTemporalTypeException: Unsupported field: YearOfEra
    at java.time.Instant.getLong(Instant.java:608)
    at java.time.format.DateTimePrintContext.getValue(DateTimePrintContext.java:298)
    ...

Answer 1

Time Zone

To format an Instant a time-zone is required. Without a time-zone, the formatter does not know how to convert the instant to human date-time fields, and therefore throws an exception.

The time-zone can be added directly to the formatter using withZone().

DateTimeFormatter formatter =
    DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDateTime( FormatStyle.SHORT )
                     .withLocale( Locale.UK )
                     .withZone( ZoneId.systemDefault() );

If you specifically want an ISO-8601 format with no explicit time-zone (as the OP asked), with the time-zone implicitly UTC, you need

DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME.withZone(ZoneId.from(ZoneOffset.UTC))

Generating String

Now use that formatter to generate the String representation of your Instant.

Instant instant = Instant.now();
String output = formatter.format( instant );

Dump to console.

System.out.println("formatter: " + formatter + " with zone: " + formatter.getZone() + " and Locale: " + formatter.getLocale() );
System.out.println("instant: " + instant );
System.out.println("output: " + output );

When run.

formatter: Localized(SHORT,SHORT) with zone: US/Pacific and Locale: en_GB
instant: 2015-06-02T21:34:33.616Z
output: 02/06/15 14:34