Normalizing UTC Dates

gistfile1.java

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import java.util.TimeZone;


public class TestDate {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		try {
			String databaseUTCDate = "2012-04-17 19:00:00";

			SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyy-mm-d HH:mm:ss");

			Date defaultTimeZoneDate = format.parse(databaseUTCDate);

			int defaultTimeZoneOffset = TimeZone.getDefault().getOffset(defaultTimeZoneDate.getTime());

			Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

			calendar.setTime(defaultTimeZoneDate);
			calendar.add(java.util.Calendar.MILLISECOND, -defaultTimeZoneOffset);

			System.out.println("Default TimeZone Date: " + defaultTimeZoneDate);
			System.out.println("UTC equivalent Date: " + calendar.getTime());

		} catch (ParseException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

}