ParseException Java

Question

I am writing an appointment program that allows the user to input appointment dates, description, and type of appointment. Everything works correctly until they make a selection to "Print Range" which prints a range of dates, when they choose to do this it tells them to enter START date and an END date, the program then pulls all of the appointments from between those dates and displays them into the output box.

Here are the errors I am getting with print range :

AppointmentNew.java:68: unreported exception java.text.ParseException; must be caught or declared to be thrown
        Date lowDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());
                                ^
AppointmentNew.java:70: unreported exception java.text.ParseException; must be caught or declared to be thrown
        Date highDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());  
                                 ^
AppointmentNew.java:77: unreported exception java.text.ParseException; must be caught or declared to be thrown
           Date newCurrentDate = sdf.parse(currentDate); 

I think I should probably do a try/catch block but am not real sure of how to do that, and was wondering if someone could provide me an answer or example to fix these errors.

Here is some of my code where I believe the parse error is taking place :

import java.util.*;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class AppointmentNew 
{
public static void main (String[] args) throws Exception
{

if (choiceNum == 2)
     {
        System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter START Date in mm/dd/yyyy format: ");
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
        Date lowDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());
        System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter END Date in mm/dd/yyyy format: ");
       Date highDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());  

        for(int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
        {
           int dateSpot = list.get(i).indexOf(" ");
           String currentDate = list.get(i);
           currentDate.substring(0, dateSpot);
           Date newCurrentDate = sdf.parse(currentDate); 

           if (newCurrentDate.compareTo(lowDate) >= 0 && newCurrentDate.compareTo(highDate) <= 0)
           {
              System.out.println("\n\t" + list.get(i));

           }
        }
     }

Answer 1

Why you're getting the error:

How to Fix it:

Surround the offending code with try catch - it's like saying, I will capture the error, log it and hopefully be able to do something about it.

 try {  // add this line
             System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter START Date in mm/dd/yyyy format: ");
             SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
             Date lowDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());
             System.out.print("\n\n\tEnter END Date in mm/dd/yyyy format: ");  
             Date highDate = sdf.parse(stdin.nextLine());  

             for(int i = 0; i < list.size(); i++)
             {
                int dateSpot = list.get(i).indexOf(" ");
                String currentDate = list.get(i);
                currentDate.substring(0, dateSpot);
                Date newCurrentDate = sdf.parse(currentDate); 

                if (newCurrentDate.compareTo(lowDate) >= 0 && newCurrentDate.compareTo(highDate) <= 0)
                {
                   System.out.println("\n\t" + list.get(i));   
                }
             }
         } catch (ParseException ex) {
              ex.printStackTrace(); // or log it using a logging framework
         }

or throw it at the main - here, it's like saying: whoever it is that's calling this method, please take care of this problem if it happens:

public static void main (String[] args) throws Exception