How to use LocalDateTime RequestParam in Spring? I get "Failed to convert String to LocalDateTime"

I use Spring Boot and included jackson-datatype-jsr310 with Maven:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-datatype-jsr310</artifactId>
    <version>2.7.3</version>
</dependency>

When I try to use a RequestParam with a Java 8 Date/Time type,

@GetMapping("/test")
public Page<User> get(
    @RequestParam(value = "start", required = false)
    @DateTimeFormat(iso = DateTimeFormat.ISO.DATE_TIME) LocalDateTime start) {
//...
}

and test it with this URL:

/test?start=2016-10-8T00:00

I get the following error:

{
  "timestamp": 1477528408379,
  "status": 400,
  "error": "Bad Request",
  "exception": "org.springframework.web.method.annotation.MethodArgumentTypeMismatchException",
  "message": "Failed to convert value of type [java.lang.String] to required type [java.time.LocalDateTime]; nested exception is org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionFailedException: Failed to convert from type [java.lang.String] to type [@org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestParam @org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat java.time.LocalDateTime] for value '2016-10-8T00:00'; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Parse attempt failed for value [2016-10-8T00:00]",
  "path": "/test"
}

TL;DR - you can capture it as a string with just @RequestParam, or you can have Spring additionally parse the string into a java date / time class via @DateTimeFormat on the parameter as well.

the @RequestParam is enough to grab the date you supply after the = sign, however, it comes into the method as a String. That is why it is throwing the cast exception.

There are a few ways to achieve this:

1. parse the date yourself, grabbing the value as a string.

@GetMapping("/test")
public Page<User> get(@RequestParam(value="start", required = false) String start){

    //Create a DateTimeFormatter with your required format:
    DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormat = 
            new DateTimeFormatter(DateTimeFormatter.BASIC_ISO_DATE);

    //Next parse the date from the @RequestParam, specifying the TO type as 
a TemporalQuery:
   LocalDateTime date = dateTimeFormat.parse(start, LocalDateTime::from);
    
    //Do the rest of your code...
}

2. Leverage Spring's ability to automatically parse and expect date formats:

@GetMapping("/test")
public void processDateTime(@RequestParam("start") 
                            @DateTimeFormat(iso = DateTimeFormat.ISO.DATE_TIME) 
                            LocalDateTime date) {
        // The rest of your code (Spring already parsed the date).
}

You did everything correct :) . Here is an example that shows exactly what you are doing. Just Annotate your RequestParam with @DateTimeFormat. There is no need for special GenericConversionService or manual conversion in the controller. This blog post writes about it.

@RestController
@RequestMapping("/api/datetime/")
final class DateTimeController {
 
    @RequestMapping(value = "datetime", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public void processDateTime(@RequestParam("datetime") 
                                @DateTimeFormat(iso = DateTimeFormat.ISO.DATE_TIME) LocalDateTime dateAndTime) {
        //Do stuff
    }
}

I guess you had an issue with the format. On my setup everything works well.

I found workaround here.

> Spring/Spring Boot only supports the date/date-time format in BODY parameters.

The following configuration class adds support for date/date-time in QUERY STRING (request parameters):

// Since Spring Framwork 5.0 & Java 8+
@Configuration
public class DateTimeFormatConfiguration implements WebMvcConfigurer {

	@Override
	public void addFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
		DateTimeFormatterRegistrar registrar = new DateTimeFormatterRegistrar();
		registrar.setUseIsoFormat(true);
		registrar.registerFormatters(registry);
	}
}

respectively:

// Until Spring Framwork 4.+
@Configuration
public class DateTimeFormatConfiguration extends WebMvcConfigurerAdapter {

	@Override
	public void addFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
		DateTimeFormatterRegistrar registrar = new DateTimeFormatterRegistrar();
		registrar.setUseIsoFormat(true);
		registrar.registerFormatters(registry);
	}
}

It works even if you bind multiple request parameters to some class (@DateTimeFormat annotation helpless in this case):

public class ReportRequest {
    private LocalDate from;
    private LocalDate to;

    public LocalDate getFrom() {
        return from;
    }

    public void setFrom(LocalDate from) {
        this.from = from;
    }

    public LocalDate getTo() {
        return to;
    }

    public void setTo(LocalDate to) {
        this.to = to;
    }
}

// ...

@GetMapping("/api/report")
public void getReport(ReportRequest request) {
// ...

Like I put in the comment, you could also use this solution in the signature method: @RequestParam @DateTimeFormat(iso = DateTimeFormat.ISO.DATE_TIME) LocalDateTime start

SpringBoot 2.X.X and newer

If you use the dependency spring-boot-starter-web version 2.0.0.RELEASE or higher, there is no longer needed to explicitely include jackson-datatype-jsr310 dependency, which is already provided with spring-boot-starter-web through spring-boot-starter-json.

This was resolved as Spring Boot issue #9297 and the answer is still valid and relevant:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    <version>2.0.0.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

@RequestMapping(value = "datetime", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public void foo(
        @RequestParam("dateTime") 
        @DateTimeFormat(iso = DateTimeFormat.ISO.DATE_TIME) LocalDateTime ldt) {

    // IMPLEMENTATION
}

I ran into the same problem and found my solution here (without using Annotations)

> ...you must at least properly register a string to [LocalDateTime] Converter in > your context, so that Spring can use it to automatically do this for > you every time you give a String as input and expect a [LocalDateTime]. (A big > number of converters are already implemented by Spring and contained > in the core.convert.support package, but none involves a [LocalDateTime] > conversion)

So in your case you would do this:

public class StringToLocalDateTimeConverter implements Converter<String, LocalDateTime> {
    public LocalDateTime convert(String source) {
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.BASIC_ISO_DATE;
        return LocalDateTime.parse(source, formatter);
    }
}

and then just register your bean:

<bean class="com.mycompany.mypackage.StringToLocalDateTimeConverter"/>

With Annotations

add it to your ConversionService:

@Component
public class SomeAmazingConversionService extends GenericConversionService {

    public SomeAmazingConversionService() {
        addConverter(new StringToLocalDateTimeConverter());
    }

}

and finally you would then @Autowire in your ConversionService:

@Autowired
private SomeAmazingConversionService someAmazingConversionService;

You can read more about conversions with spring (and formatting) on this site. Be forewarned it has a ton of ads, but I definitely found it to be a useful site and a good intro to the topic.

Following works well with Spring Boot 2.1.6:

Controller

@Slf4j
@RestController
public class RequestController {

    @GetMapping
    public String test(RequestParameter param) {
	    log.info("Called services with parameter: " + param);
	    LocalDateTime dateTime = param.getCreated().plus(10, ChronoUnit.YEARS);
	    LocalDate date = param.getCreatedDate().plus(10, ChronoUnit.YEARS);
	
	    String result = "DATE_TIME: " + dateTime + "<br /> DATE: " + date;
	    return result;
    }

    @PostMapping
    public LocalDate post(@RequestBody PostBody body) {
	    log.info("Posted body: " + body);
	    return body.getDate().plus(10, ChronoUnit.YEARS);
    }
}

Dto classes:

@Value
public class RequestParameter {
    @DateTimeFormat(iso = DATE_TIME)
    LocalDateTime created;

    @DateTimeFormat(iso = DATE)
    LocalDate createdDate;
}

@Data
@Builder
@NoArgsConstructor
@AllArgsConstructor
public class PostBody {
    LocalDate date;
}

Test class:

@RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
@WebMvcTest(RequestController.class)
public class RequestControllerTest {

    @Autowired MockMvc mvc;
    @Autowired ObjectMapper mapper;

    @Test
    public void testWsCall() throws Exception {
	    String pDate 		= "2019-05-01";
	    String pDateTime 	= pDate + "T23:10:01";
	    String eDateTime = "2029-05-01T23:10:01"; 
	
	    MvcResult result = mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("")
			.param("created", pDateTime)
			.param("createdDate", pDate))
		  .andExpect(status().isOk())
		  .andReturn();
	
	    String payload = result.getResponse().getContentAsString();
	    assertThat(payload).contains(eDateTime);
    }

    @Test
    public void testMapper() throws Exception {
	    String pDate 		= "2019-05-01";
	    String eDate 		= "2029-05-01";
	    String pDateTime 	= pDate + "T23:10:01";
	    String eDateTime 	= eDate + "T23:10:01"; 
	
	    MvcResult result = mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.get("")
			.param("created", pDateTime)
			.param("createdDate", pDate)
	    )
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andReturn();
	
	    String payload = result.getResponse().getContentAsString();
	    assertThat(payload).contains(eDate).contains(eDateTime);
    }


    @Test
    public void testPost() throws Exception {
	    LocalDate testDate = LocalDate.of(2015, Month.JANUARY, 1);
	
	    PostBody body = PostBody.builder().date(testDate).build();
	    String request = mapper.writeValueAsString(body);
	
	    MvcResult result = mvc.perform(MockMvcRequestBuilders.post("")
			.content(request).contentType(APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
	    )
		.andExpect(status().isOk())
		.andReturn();
	
	    ObjectReader reader = mapper.reader().forType(LocalDate.class);
	    LocalDate payload = reader.readValue(result.getResponse().getContentAsString());
	    assertThat(payload).isEqualTo(testDate.plus(10, ChronoUnit.YEARS));
    }

}

The answers above didn't work for me, but I blundered on to one which did here: https://blog.codecentric.de/en/2017/08/parsing-of-localdate-query-parameters-in-spring-boot/ The winning snippet was the ControllerAdvice annotation, which has the advantage of applying this fix across all your controllers:

@ControllerAdvice
public class LocalDateTimeControllerAdvice
{

    @InitBinder
    public void initBinder( WebDataBinder binder )
    {
        binder.registerCustomEditor( LocalDateTime.class, new PropertyEditorSupport()
        {
            @Override
            public void setAsText( String text ) throws IllegalArgumentException
            {
                LocalDateTime.parse( text, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME );
            }
        } );
    }
}

You can add to config, this solution does work with optional as well as with non-optional parameters.

@Bean
    public Formatter<LocalDate> localDateFormatter() {
        return new Formatter<>() {
            @Override
            public LocalDate parse(String text, Locale locale) {
                return LocalDate.parse(text, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE);
            }

            @Override
            public String print(LocalDate object, Locale locale) {
                return DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE.format(object);
            }
        };
    }


    @Bean
    public Formatter<LocalDateTime> localDateTimeFormatter() {
        return new Formatter<>() {
            @Override
            public LocalDateTime parse(String text, Locale locale) {
                return LocalDateTime.parse(text, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME);
            }

            @Override
            public String print(LocalDateTime object, Locale locale) {
                return DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME.format(object);
            }
        };
    }

Here is another general solution with parameter converter:

import org.springframework.core.convert.converter.Converter;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import ru.diasoft.micro.msamiddleoffice.ftcaa.customerprofile.config.JacksonConfig;

import java.time.DateTimeException;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeParseException;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.stream.Collectors;

@Component
public class LocalDateTimeConverter implements Converter<String, LocalDateTime>{

    private static final List<String> SUPPORTED_FORMATS = Arrays.asList("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'", "[another date time format ...]");
    private static final List<DateTimeFormatter> DATE_TIME_FORMATTERS = SUPPORTED_FORMATS
            .stream()
            .map(DateTimeFormatter::ofPattern)
            .collect(Collectors.toList());

    @Override
    public LocalDateTime convert(String s) {

        for (DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter : DATE_TIME_FORMATTERS) {
            try {
                return LocalDateTime.parse(s, dateTimeFormatter);
            } catch (DateTimeParseException ex) {
                // deliberate empty block so that all parsers run
            }
        }

        throw new DateTimeException(String.format("unable to parse (%s) supported formats are %s",
                s, String.join(", ", SUPPORTED_FORMATS)));
    }
}

You can global configure datetime format in application properties. Like:

> spring.mvc.format.date=yyyy-MM-dd

> spring.mvc.format.date-time=yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss

> spring.mvc.format.time=HH:mm:ss

Check in mavern: org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-autoconfigure:2.5.3

For global configuration :

public class LocalDateTimePropertyEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport {

    @Override
    public void setAsText(String text) throws IllegalArgumentException {
        setValue(LocalDateTime.parse(text, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME));
    }

}

And then

@ControllerAdvice
public class InitBinderHandler {

    @InitBinder
    public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) { 
        binder.registerCustomEditor(OffsetDateTime.class, new OffsetDateTimePropertyEditor());
    }

}

I had a similar problem in a related context

I am using WebRequestDataBinder to map the request params to a model dynamically.

Object domainObject = ModelManager.getEntity(entityName).newInstance();
WebRequestDataBinder binder = new WebRequestDataBinder(domainObject);
binder.bind(request);

This piece of code is working for primitives but did not work for LocalDateTime type attributes

To fix the problem, before calling binder.bind, I registered a custom editor before calling bind()

binder.registerCustomEditor(LocalDateTime.class, new PropertyEditorSupport()
                {
                    @Override
                    public void setAsText(String text) throws IllegalArgumentException
                    {
                        setValue(LocalDateTime.parse(text, DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME));
                    }

                    @Override
                    public String getAsText() {
                        return DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME.format((LocalDateTime) getValue());
                    }

                }
            );

This solved the problem.