Java Date And Time

Java offers the Date class obtainable in java.util wrap up, this class summarizes the present date and time.

The Date class holds two constructors as exposed in the subsequent table.

Following are the methods of the date class.

Getting Current Date and Time

This is an incredibly effortless technique to find the current date and time in Java. You could utilize an uncomplicated Date object with the toString() method to print the present date and time as follows:

Example

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import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      // Instantiate a Date object
      Date date = new Date();

      // display time and date using toString()
      System.out.println(date.toString());
   }
}

This will produce the following result:

Output

on May 04 09:51:52 CDT 2009

Date Comparison

• Subsequent are the three methods to contrast two dates −
• You could exercise getTime( ) to get the number of milliseconds that encompass elapsed during midnight, January 1, 1970, for together objects and then evaluate these two values.
• You preserve employ the techniques before( ), after( ), and equals( ). Since the 12th of the month approaches before the 18th, for instance, new Date(99, 2, 12).before(new Date (99, 2, 18)) returns true.

Your container employs the compareTo( ) technique, which is described by a similar line and applied by Date.

Date Formatting Using SimpleDateFormat

SimpleDateFormat is a concrete class for formatting and parsing dates in a locale-sensitive manner. SimpleDateFormat allows you to start by choosing any user-defined patterns for date-time formatting.

Example

import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;

public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      Date dNow = new Date( );
      SimpleDateFormat ft = 
      new SimpleDateFormat ("E yyyy.MM.dd 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz");

      System.out.println("Current Date: " + ft.format(dNow));
   }
}

This will produce the following result:

Output

Current Date: Sun 2004.07.18 at 04:14:09 PM PDT

Simple DateFormat Format Codes

To identify the time format, employ a time prototype string. In this pattern, entire ASCII letters are kept as pattern letters, which are described as the following:

Date Formatting Using printf

Date and time formatting can be complete very effortlessly with a print method. You employ a two-letter format, preliminary with t and finishing in one of the letters of the table as exposed in the subsequent code.

Example

import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      // Instantiate a Date object
      Date date = new Date();

      // display time and date
      String str = String.format("Current Date/Time : %tc", date );

      System.out.printf(str);
   }
}

This will produce the following result −

Output

Current Date/Time : Sat Dec 15 16:37:57 MST 2012

It would be a bit impractical if you had to deliver the date numerous times to format all parts. For that basis, a format cord can point to the index of the argument to be a format.

The index must immediately follow the % and it must be terminated by a $.

Example

import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      // Instantiate a Date object
      Date date = new Date();
  
      // display time and date
      System.out.printf("%1$s %2$tB %2$td, %2$tY", "Due date:", date);
   }
}

This will produce the following result −

Output

Due date: February 09, 2004

Alternatively, you can use the < flag. It indicates that the same argument as in the preceding format specification should be used again.

Example

import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      // Instantiate a Date object
      Date date = new Date();
  
      // display formatted date
      System.out.printf("%s %tB %<te, %<tY", "Due date:", date);
   }
}

This will produce the following result:

Output

Due date: February 09, 2004

Date and Time Conversion Characters

There are other useful classes related to Date and time. For more details, you can refer to Java Standard documentation.

Parsing Strings into Dates

The SimpleDateFormat class has some additional methods, notably parse( ), which tries to parse a string according to the format stored in the given SimpleDateFormat object.

Example

import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
  
public class DateDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      SimpleDateFormat ft = new SimpleDateFormat ("yyyy-MM-dd"); 
      String input = args.length == 0 ? "1818-11-11" : args[0]; 

      System.out.print(input + " Parses as "); 
      Date t;
      try {
         t = ft.parse(input); 
         System.out.println(t); 
      } catch (ParseException e) { 
         System.out.println("Unparseable using " + ft); 
      }
   }
}

A sample run of the above program would produce the following result −

Output

1818-11-11 Parses as Wed Nov 11 00:00:00 EST 1818

Sleeping for a While

You can sleep for any period of time from one millisecond up to the lifetime of your computer. For example, the following program would sleep for 3 seconds −

Example

import java.util.*;
public class SleepDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try { 
         System.out.println(new Date( ) + "\n"); 
         Thread.sleep(5*60*10); 
         System.out.println(new Date( ) + "\n"); 
      } catch (Exception e) {
         System.out.println("Got an exception!"); 
      }
   }
}

This will produce the following result −

Output

Sun May 03 18:04:41 GMT 2009
Sun May 03 18:04:51 GMT 2009

Measuring Elapsed Time

Sometimes, you may need to measure point in time in milliseconds. So let's re-write the above example once again −

Example

import java.util.*;
public class DiffDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      try {
         long start = System.currentTimeMillis( );
         System.out.println(new Date( ) + "\n");
         
         Thread.sleep(5*60*10);
         System.out.println(new Date( ) + "\n");
         
         long end = System.currentTimeMillis( );
         long diff = end - start;
         System.out.println("Difference is : " + diff);
      } catch (Exception e) {
         System.out.println("Got an exception!");
      }
   }
}

This will produce the following result:

Output

Sun May 03 18:16:51 GMT 2009
Sun May 03 18:16:57 GMT 2009
Difference is : 5993

GregorianCalendar Class

GregorianCalendar is an existing execution of a Calendar class that executes the regular Gregorian calendar with which you are well known. We did not argue Calendar class in this tutorial, you can search for standard Java certification for this.

The getInstance( ) method of Calendar returns a GregorianCalendar initialized with the current date and time in the default locale and time zone. GregorianCalendar defines two fields: AD and BC. These represent the two eras defined by the Gregorian calendar.

There are also several constructors for GregorianCalendar objects −

Here is the list of few useful support methods provided by GregorianCalendar class −

Example

import java.util.*;
public class GregorianCalendarDemo {

   public static void main(String args[]) {
      String months[] = {"Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", 
         "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"};
      
      int year;
      // Create a Gregorian calendar initialized
      // with the current date and time in the
      // default locale and timezone.
      
      GregorianCalendar gcalendar = new GregorianCalendar();
      
      // Display current time and date information.
      System.out.print("Date: ");
      System.out.print(months[gcalendar.get(Calendar.MONTH)]);
      System.out.print(" " + gcalendar.get(Calendar.DATE) + " ");
      System.out.println(year = gcalendar.get(Calendar.YEAR));
      System.out.print("Time: ");
      System.out.print(gcalendar.get(Calendar.HOUR) + ":");
      System.out.print(gcalendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE) + ":");
      System.out.println(gcalendar.get(Calendar.SECOND));

      // Test if the current year is a leap year
      if(gcalendar.isLeapYear(year)) {
         System.out.println("The current year is a leap year");
      }else {
         System.out.println("The current year is not a leap year");
      }
   }
}

This will produce the following result:

Output

Date: Apr 22 2009
Time: 11:25:27
The current year is not a leap year

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