title: How do I convert a String in a different timezone to UTC using Joda-Time
body: <p>I managed to convert a valid date string in a different timezone to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time" rel="nofollow">UTC</a> as follows.</p>
  
  <pre><code>String DATE_FORMAT = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss";
  DateTimeFormatter DATETIME_FORMATTER = DateTimeFormat.forPattern(DATE_FORMAT);
  DateTimeZone dateTimeZone = DateTimeZone.forID("-03:00");
  //date is 2000-01-01 00:00:00 -03:00
  DateTime date =    DATETIME_FORMATTER.withZone(dateTimeZone).parseDateTime("2000-01-01 00:00:00"));
  System.out.println("Current date is: " + date.toString());
  //now convert to UTC
  DateTime convertedDate = date.toDateTime(DateTimeZone.UTC);
  System.out.println("Converted date: " + date.toString());
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The result is </p>
  
  <pre><code>Current date is: 2000-01-01T00:00:00.000-03:00
  Converted date: 2000-01-01T03:00:00.000Z
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Is there a shorter/better way of doing this? I want the final date to be a <a href="http://www.joda.org/joda-time/" rel="nofollow">Joda-Time</a> <a href="http://www.joda.org/joda-time/apidocs/org/joda/time/DateTime.html" rel="nofollow">DateTime</a> object.</p>