[FIXED] Comparing dates with months as strings

Issue

I am trying to compare these two dates :

17 Oct. 2019 (08:23)
19 déc. 2019 (21:15)

The months are in French and the main problem is the months. Do I need to put an if statement for every type of month so I can switch it with the appropriate month? For example:

if (MonthValue.equals("oct."){
    DateValue.replace("oct.","10");
}

Or is there an easier solution, because I need to check in a table if the first value is bigger than the second one.

Edit : My new Code :

String target1 = "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)";
        String target2 = "19 déc. 2019 (21:15)";
        DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM. YYYY (kk:mm)", Locale.FRENCH);
        Date result =  df.parse(target1);  
        Date result2 =  df.parse(target2); 
        System.out.println(result);
        System.out.println(result2);
        if(result.compareTo(result2) < 0) {
            System.out.println("true");
        }
        else {
            System.out.println("false");
        }

Doesn't work gives this error:

java.text.ParseException: Unparseable date: "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)"

Solution

Using DateTimeFormatter with pattern dd MMM yyyy (HH:mm) to parse the date string like this

String target1 = "17 oct. 2019 (08:23)";
String target2 = "19 déc. 2019 (21:15)";

Locale locale = Locale.FRANCE;
DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder().appendPattern("dd MMM yyyy (HH:mm)")
        .toFormatter(locale);
LocalDateTime dateTime1 = LocalDateTime.parse(target1, dateTimeFormatter);
LocalDateTime dateTime2 = LocalDateTime.parse(target2, dateTimeFormatter);

System.out.println(dateTime1);
System.out.println(dateTime2);
if (dateTime1.compareTo(dateTime2) < 0) {
    System.out.println("true");
} else {
    System.out.println("false");
}

Answered By - zephyr