How do you format a timestamp string to a Date object in Java?

I’m creating a web service in Java using a Spring framework. It takes in an HTTP request with parameters ‘payer’, ‘points’, and ‘timestamp’.

I need to store the data objects in a list and sort the list by timestamp, so I’m trying to convert the timestamp string to a Date object. Here’s my current code:

String[] payers; // stores all payers
int totalPayers = 0; // number of payers in 'payers'

@GetMapping("/transaction")
    public void addTrans(@RequestParam(value="payer") String payer, @RequestParam(value="points") int points, @RequestParam(value="timestamp") String time) throws Exception{

        Date timestamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ").parse(time);
        
        Transaction newTrans = new Transaction(timestamp, payer, points);
        totalTrans++;

        // if the payer is new, add them to the payers list
        boolean newPayer = true;
        for(int i = 0; i < totalPayers; i++){
            if (payer == payers[i]){
                newPayer = false;
                break;
            }
        }
        if(newPayer){
            payers[totalPayers++] = payer;
        }

        transactions.add(newTrans); // add the new transaction to the list
        totalPoints += newTrans.getPoints();

        Collections.sort(transactions); // sort the list by timestamp

        return;
    }

When I run it, I’m getting the error:

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "2020-11-02T14:00:00Z"

Does anyone know of something I may be missing? Is there an easier way to convert the string?

>Solution :

You nee single quotes around the Z too.

Date timestamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss'Z'").parse(time);

The Z is not part of the pattern the function is supposed to recognize.