Parse and format date

Question

I have the following code for taking a date in the form of a string yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss (UTC timezone) and turning it into EEEE d(st, nd, rd, th) MMMM yyyy HH:mm (devices default timezone).

However, my problem with the way I have done it is the code looks messy and inefficient. Is there a way to achieve what I want without formating and parsing the same date so many times to make it more efficient? Or any other improvements?

Preferably supporting Android API level 14.

---

String inputExample = "2017-06-28 22:44:55";

//Converts UTC to Device Default (Local)
private String convertUTC(String dateStr) {
    try {
        SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
        Date temp = df.parse(dateStr);
        df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());
        String local = df.format(temp);
        Date localDate = df.parse(dateStr);
        SimpleDateFormat outputDF1 = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE ");
        SimpleDateFormat outputDF2 = new SimpleDateFormat(" MMMM yyyy HH:mm");
        return outputDF1.format(temp) + prefix(local) + outputDF2.format(temp);
    } catch(java.text.ParseException pE) {
        Log.e("", "Parse Exception", pE);
        return null;
    }
}

private String prefix(String dateStr) {
    try {
        SimpleDateFormat outputDF = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        Date temp = outputDF.parse(dateStr);
        SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("d");
        int d = Integer.parseInt(df.format(temp));
        if(1 <= d && d <= 31) {
            if(11 <= d && d <= 13)
                return d + "th";
            switch (d % 10) {
                case 1: return d + "st";
                case 2: return d + "nd";
                case 3: return d + "rd";
                default: return d + "th";
            }
        }
        Log.e("", "Null Date");
        return null;
    } catch(java.text.ParseException pE) {
        Log.e("", "Parse Exception", pE);
        return null;
    }
}

Answer 1

Parsing twice

Instead of parsing dateStr twice, consider passing the Date object you have already constructed to the local time zone into prefix(String).

Calendar vs Date

A Calendar object has arguably better semantics than a Date, so it may be easier to access the individual chronological fields (actually, in your case, just the day component).

Lengthy try-catch block

Your try-catch block in convertUTC(String) spans the entirety of the method, but it's generally recommended to keep them short and to-the-point so that you effectively get a fail-fast mechanism. It's also easier to understand what's the exact code that might plausibly throw the checked Exception, so that it can be easier to refactor in the future.