SimpleDateFormat parse loses timezone

Question

Code:

 SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss z");
    sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
    System.out.println(new Date());
    try {
        String d = sdf.format(new Date());
        System.out.println(d);
        System.out.println(sdf.parse(d));
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();  //To change body of catch statement use File | Settings | File Templates.
    }

Output:

Thu Aug 08 17:26:32 GMT+08:00 2013
2013.08.08 09:26:32 GMT
Thu Aug 08 17:26:32 GMT+08:00 2013

Note that format() formats the Date correctly to GMT, but parse() lost the GMT details. I know I can use substring() and work around this, but what is the reason underlying this phenomenon?

Here is a duplicate question which doesn't have any answers.

Edit: Let me put the question in another way, what is the way to retrieve a Date object so that its always in GMT?

Answer 1

All I needed was this :

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss");
sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));

SimpleDateFormat sdfLocal = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd HH:mm:ss");

try {
    String d = sdf.format(new Date());
    System.out.println(d);
    System.out.println(sdfLocal.parse(d));
} catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();  //To change body of catch statement use File | Settings | File Templates.
}

Output : slightly dubious, but I want only the date to be consistent

2013.08.08 11:01:08
Thu Aug 08 11:01:08 GMT+08:00 2013