A SimpleDateFormat for ISO 8601

In an XML file, a date is formatted using ISO 8601 convention.
For example:
2005-04-01T13:38:09-08:00

The last part, "-08:00", is the timezone. How to parse such a string?
If I use SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ"), I can only parse
2005-04-01T13:38:09-0800

Any other way besides removing the last colon then use the SimpleDateFormat above? How to construct a SimpleDateFormat or just DateFormat so that it can handle the dateTime string from XML directly?

Hi,

I suppose this is what you're hunting for. Do take note that it is not using the XMLGregorianCalendar class. However, I'm pretty sure you could modify the source to use it.

HTH.
[ May 02, 2005: Message edited by: Chengwei Lee ]

An alternative is to use the wonderfull Joda library.
This is meant as a replacement for the java.util.date/calendar. It supports both forms of the timezone info in its formatting.

Thanks for referring Joda! am going through it right now..i hope it solves my problem as well

Just in case you missed it. Here (Joda DateTimeFormatter) is specified how to parse the format you mentionned (using 'ZZ' as timezone).

Thanks to all replies!