Java Calendar and SimpleDateFormat fails to get date at 2am

Question

I'd like to increment minutes in some dates but when the result must be at 2am, it gives 3am. This issue occurs only at 2am! Let's take a look at the code here :

SimpleDateFormat spf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm", java.util.Locale.FRANCE);
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(new Date());
cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 2);
out.print(spf.format(cal.getTime()));

Answer 1

This is a Daylight Savings Time issue: on some time zones there is no 2AM for that date; and there are two 2AM times with one hour difference.

As an example, here in Greece, on March 30th there will be no 3AM ; the clock will go from 02:59:59 to 04:00:00, and on October 26th the clock will go from 03:59:59 back to 03:00:00.