Golang : Handle or parse date string with Z suffix(RFC3339) example

You want to convert a RFC3339 date string with Z suffix such as 2016-09-01T15:23:01Z to Golang's time.Time date type.

NOTE: The Z suffix in a given date string simply means UTC.

Below is an example on how to convert RFC3339 date string with Z suffix to time.Time type. Example is taken and modify from the previous tutorial on converting date string to time.Time variants.

Here you go!

 package main

 import (
  "fmt"
  "os"
  "time"
 )

 func main() {

  dateString := "2016-09-01T15:23:01Z"

  fmt.Printf("Input : %s\n", dateString)

  //convert date string of RFC3339 to time.Time type

  // see RFC3339 in https://golang.org/pkg/time/#pkg-constants
  // or if you prefer, you can see layOut as:

  //layOut := "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00" // yyyy-dd-MM

  dateStamp, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, dateString)

  if err != nil {
 fmt.Println(err)
 os.Exit(1)
  }

  fmt.Printf("Output(local date) : %s\n", dateStamp.Local())
  fmt.Printf("Output(UTC) : %s\n", dateStamp)

  // format to E, MMM d yyyy
  convertedDateString := dateStamp.Format("Mon 2-Jan-2006")
  fmt.Printf("Output : %s\n", convertedDateString)

  fmt.Printf("Full output : %s\n", dateStamp.Format("Monday 2-January-2006"))

  location, err := time.LoadLocation("America/New_York")

  if err != nil {
 fmt.Println(err)
  }

  fmt.Println("Location : ", location, " Time : ", dateStamp.In(location))

  location, _ = time.LoadLocation("Asia/Tokyo")
  fmt.Println("Location : ", location, " Time : ", dateStamp.In(location))

 }

Output:

Input : 2016-09-01T15:23:01Z

Output(local date) : 2016-09-01 23:23:01 +0800 SGT

Output(UTC) : 2016-09-01 15:23:01 +0000 UTC

Output : Thu 1-Sep-2016

Full output : Thursday 1-September-2016

Location : America/New_York Time : 2016-09-01 11:23:01 -0400 EDT

Location : Asia/Tokyo Time : 2016-09-02 00:23:01 +0900 JST

On the side note, even if the given date string does not have the Z suffix - such as 2016-09-01T10:15:30+08:00

You still can parse the date string.

 package main

 import (
 "fmt"
 "os"
 "time"
 )

 func main() {

 dateString := "2016-09-01T10:15:30+08:00"

 fmt.Printf("Input : %s\n", dateString)

 //convert date string of RFC3339 to time.Time type

 // see RFC3339 in https://golang.org/pkg/time/#pkg-constants
 // or if you prefer, you can see layOut as:

 //layOut := "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00" // yyyy-dd-MM

 dateStamp, err := time.Parse(time.RFC3339, dateString)

 if err != nil {
 fmt.Println(err)
 os.Exit(1)
 }

 fmt.Printf("Output(local date) : %s\n", dateStamp.Local())
 fmt.Printf("Output(UTC) : %s\n", dateStamp)

 // format to E, MMM d yyyy
 convertedDateString := dateStamp.Format("Mon 2-Jan-2006")
 fmt.Printf("Output : %s\n", convertedDateString)

 fmt.Printf("Full output : %s\n", dateStamp.Format("Monday 2-January-2006"))

 location, err := time.LoadLocation("America/New_York")

 if err != nil {
 fmt.Println(err)
 }

 fmt.Println("Location : ", location, " Time : ", dateStamp.In(location))

 location, _ = time.LoadLocation("Asia/Tokyo")
 fmt.Println("Location : ", location, " Time : ", dateStamp.In(location))

 }

Input : 2016-09-01T10:15:30+08:00

Output(local date) : 2016-09-01 10:15:30 +0800 SGT

Output(UTC) : 2016-09-01 10:15:30 +0800 SGT

Output : Thu 1-Sep-2016

Full output : Thursday 1-September-2016

Location : America/New_York Time : 2016-08-31 22:15:30 -0400 EDT

Location : Asia/Tokyo Time : 2016-09-01 11:15:30 +0900 JST

References:

https://www.socketloop.com/tutorials/golang-convert-date-string-to-variants-of-time-time-type-examples

https://golang.org/pkg/time/#pkg-constants

  ANSIC = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 2006"
  UnixDate = "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006"
  RubyDate = "Mon Jan 02 15:04:05 -0700 2006"
  RFC822 = "02 Jan 06 15:04 MST"
  RFC822Z = "02 Jan 06 15:04 -0700" // RFC822 with numeric zone
  RFC850 = "Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST"
  RFC1123 = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST"
  RFC1123Z = "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 -0700" // RFC1123 with numeric zone
  RFC3339 = "2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00"
  RFC3339Nano = "2006-01-02T15:04:05.999999999Z07:00"
  Kitchen = "3:04PM"
  // Handy time stamps.
  Stamp = "Jan _2 15:04:05"
  StampMilli = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000"
  StampMicro = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000"
  StampNano  = "Jan _2 15:04:05.000000000"