How to parse non-standard month names with DateTimeFormatter

You could use a DateTimeFormatterBuilder:

private static final DateTimeFormatter formatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
            .appendOptional(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d. MMM. HH:ss"))
            .appendOptional(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d. MMMM HH:ss"))
            .toFormatter(Locale.GERMAN);

Running it on this:

Stream.of(("10. Jan. 18:14\n" +
           "8. Feb. 19:02\n" +
           "1. Mär. 19:40\n" +
           "4. Apr. 18:55\n" +
           "2. Mai 21:55\n" +
           "5. Juni 08:25\n" +
           "5. Juli 20:09\n" +
           "1. Aug. 13:42").split("\n"))
       .map(formatter::parse)
       .forEach(System.out::println);

you get:

{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=10, MonthOfYear=1, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=14, HourOfDay=18},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=8, MonthOfYear=2, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=2, HourOfDay=19},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=1, MonthOfYear=3, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=40, HourOfDay=19},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=4, MonthOfYear=4, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=55, HourOfDay=18},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=2, MonthOfYear=5, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=55, HourOfDay=21},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=5, MonthOfYear=6, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=25, HourOfDay=8},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=5, MonthOfYear=7, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=9, HourOfDay=20},ISO
{NanoOfSecond=0, MicroOfSecond=0, DayOfMonth=1, MonthOfYear=8, MilliOfSecond=0, SecondOfMinute=42, HourOfDay=13},ISO

You can regex replace the month portion so it's always 3 characters length before parsing it using "d. MMM HH:mm"

text = text.replaceFirst("(\\S+\\s\\S{3})\\S", "$1")

Explanation for the regex part: Find 1 or more non-whitespace (\S+) followed by 1 whitespace (\s) followed by three non-whitespace (\S{3}) followed by one non-whitespace, and replace it with the portion inside first bracket ($1)

10. Jan. 18:14 will become 10. Jan 18:14 and 5. Juni 08:25 will become 5. Jun 08:25

As pointed out it would be easier to use a standard and consistent format - here you are mixing long and short month names.

One option (short of using a DateTimeFormatterBuilder) is to handle both cases separately:

private static final DateTimeFormatter SHORT_MONTH = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d. MMM. HH:ss", Locale.GERMAN);
private static final DateTimeFormatter LONG_MONTH = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d. MMMM HH:ss", Locale.GERMAN);
private static TemporalAccessor parse(String s) {
  try {
    return SHORT_MONTH.parse(s);
  } catch (DateTimeParseException e) {
    return LONG_MONTH.parse(s);
  }
}

The answer to the problem is the DateTimeFormatterBuilder class and the appendText(TemporalField, Map) method. It allows any text to be associated with a value when formatting or parsing, which solves the problem effectively and elegantly:

Map<Long, String> monthNameMap = new HashMap<>();
monthNameMap.put(1L, "Jan.");
monthNameMap.put(2L, "Feb.");
monthNameMap.put(3L, "Mar.");
DateTimeFormatter fmt = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
    .appendPattern("d. ")
    .appendText(ChronoField.MONTH_OF_YEAR, monthNameMap)
    .appendPattern(" HH:mm")
    .parseDefaulting(ChronoField.YEAR, 2016)
    .toFormatter();

System.out.println(LocalDateTime.parse("10. Jan. 18:14", fmt));
System.out.println(LocalDateTime.parse("8. Feb. 19:02", fmt));

Some notes:

• The monthNameMap must be populated with all 12 months
• The formatter should normally be assigned to a static final constant, rather than being created all the time
• The parseDefaulting(YEAR, 2016) has been added so that LocalDateTime.parse(String, DateTimeFormatter) can be used directly. Without it, there would be no year, and thus nothing more than a TemporalAccessor could be parsed (the year must be a leap year, in case 29th Feb is being parsed)