JAVA - DATE & TIME

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Java provides the Date class available in java.util package, this class encapsulates the current
date and time.
The Date class supports two constructors as shown below.
SR.NO

Constructor and Description

Date
This constructor initializes the object with the current date and time.

Datelongmillisec
This constructor accepts an argument that equals the number of milliseconds that
have elapsed since midnight, January 1, 1970

Below given are the methods of the date class.

SN

Methods with Description

boolean afterDatedate
Returns true if the invoking Date object contains a date that is later than the one specified
by date, otherwise, it returns false.

boolean beforeDatedate
Returns true if the invoking Date object contains a date that is earlier than the one
specified by date, otherwise, it returns false.

Object clone
Duplicates the invoking Date object.

int compareToDatedate
Compares the value of the invoking object with that of date. Returns 0 if the values are
equal. Returns a negative value if the invoking object is earlier than date. Returns a
positive value if the invoking object is later than date.

int compareToObjectobj
Operates identically to compareToDate if obj is of class Date. Otherwise, it throws a
ClassCastException.

boolean equalsObjectdate
Returns true if the invoking Date object contains the same time and date as the one
specified by date, otherwise, it returns false.

long getTime

Returns the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since January 1, 1970.
8

int hashCode
Returns a hash code for the invoking object.

void setTimelongtime
Sets the time and date as specified by time, which represents an elapsed time in
milliseconds from midnight, January 1, 1970

10

String toString
Converts the invoking Date object into a string and returns the result.

Getting Current Date & Time

This is very easy to get current date and time in Java. You can use a simple Date object with
toString method to print current date and time as follows:
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 would produce the following result:

on May 04 09:51:52 CDT 2009

Date Comparison:
There are following three ways to compare two dates:
You can use getTime to obtain the number of milliseconds that have elapsed since midnight,
January 1, 1970, for both objects and then compare these two values.
You can use the methods before, after, and equals. Because the 12th of the month comes
before the 18th, for example, new Date99, 2, 12.beforenewDate(99, 2, 18) returns true.
You can use the compareTo method, which is defined by the Comparable interface and
implemented 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 datetime formatting. For 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 would produce the following result:

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

Simple DateFormat format codes:

To specify the time format, use a time pattern string. In this pattern, all ASCII letters are reserved
as pattern letters, which are defined as the following:
Character

Description

Example

Era designator

AD

Year in four digits

2001

Month in year

July or 07

Day in month

10

Hour in A.M./P.M. 1 12

12

Hour in day 0 23

22

Minute in hour

30

Second in minute

55

Millisecond

234

Day in week

Tuesday

Day in year

360

Day of week in month

2 secondWed. inJuly

Week in year

40

Week in month

A.M./P.M. marker

PM

Hour in day 1 24

24

Hour in A.M./P.M. 0 11

10

Time zone

Eastern Standard Time

'

Escape for text

Delimiter

"

Single quote

Date Formatting using printf:

Date and time formatting can be done very easily using printf method. You use a two-letter
format, starting with t and ending in one of the letters of the table given below. For 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 using toString()
String str = String.format("Current Date/Time : %tc", date );
System.out.printf(str);
}
}

This would produce the following result:

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

It would be a bit silly if you had to supply the date multiple times to format each part. For that
reason, a format string can indicate the index of the argument to be formatted.
The index must immediately follow the % and it must be terminated by a $. For example:
import java.util.Date;
public class DateDemo {
public static void main(String args[]) {
// Instantiate a Date object
Date date = new Date();
// display time and date using toString()
System.out.printf("%1$s %2$tB %2$td, %2$tY",
"Due date:", date);
}
}

This would produce the following result:

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. For 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 would produce the following result:

Due date: February 09, 2004

Date and Time Conversion Characters:

Character

Description

Example

Complete date and time

Mon May 04 09:51:52 CDT

2009

ISO 8601 date

2004-02-09

U.S. formatted date month/day/year

02/09/2004

24-hour time

18:05:19

12-hour time

06:05:19 pm

24-hour time, no seconds

18:05

Four-digit year withleadingzeroes

2004

Last two digits of the year withleadingzeroes

04

First two digits of the year withleadingzeroes

20

Full month name

February

Abbreviated month name

Feb

Two-digit month withleadingzeroes

02

Two-digit day withleadingzeroes

03

Two-digit day withoutleadingzeroes

Full weekday name

Monday

Abbreviated weekday name

Mon

Three-digit day of year withleadingzeroes

069

Two-digit hour withleadingzeroes, between 00 and 23

18

Two-digit hour withoutleadingzeroes, between 0 and

23

18

Two-digit hour withleadingzeroes, between 01 and 12

06

Two-digit hour withoutleadingzeroes, between 1 and

12

Two-digit minutes withleadingzeroes

05

Two-digit seconds withleadingzeroes

19

Three-digit milliseconds withleadingzeroes

047

Nine-digit nanoseconds withleadingzeroes

047000000

Uppercase morning or afternoon marker

PM

Lowercase morning or afternoon marker

pm

RFC 822 numeric offset from GMT

-0800

Time zone

PST

Seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 GMT

1078884319

Milliseconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 GMT

1078884319047

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. For 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:
$ java DateDemo
1818-11-11 Parses as Wed Nov 11 00:00:00 GMT 1818
$ java DateDemo 2007-12-01
2007-12-01 Parses as Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 GMT 2007

Sleeping for a While:

You can sleep for any period of time from one millisecond up to the lifetime of your computer. For
example, following program would sleep for 10 seconds:
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 would produce the following result:

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 above

example once again:

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 would produce the following result:

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

GregorianCalendar Class:
GregorianCalendar is a concrete implementation of a Calendar class that implements the normal
Gregorian calendar with which you are familiar. I did not discuss Calendar class in this tutorial, you
can look standard Java documentation 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:
SN

Constructor with Description

GregorianCalendar
Constructs a default GregorianCalendar using the current time in the default time zone
with the default locale.

GregorianCalendarintyear, intmonth, intdate

Constructs a GregorianCalendar with the given date set in the default time zone with the
default locale.

GregorianCalendarintyear, intmonth, intdate, inthour, intminute

Constructs a GregorianCalendar with the given date and time set for the default time zone
with the default locale.

GregorianCalendarintyear, intmonth, intdate, inthour, intminute, intsecond

Constructs a GregorianCalendar with the given date and time set for the default time zone
with the default locale.

GregorianCalendarLocaleaLocale
Constructs a GregorianCalendar based on the current time in the default time zone with
the given locale.

GregorianCalendarTimeZonezone
Constructs a GregorianCalendar based on the current time in the given time zone with the
default locale.

GregorianCalendarTimeZonezone, LocaleaLocale
Constructs a GregorianCalendar based on the current time in the given time zone with the
given locale.

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

Methods with Description

void addintfield, intamount

Adds the specified signed amount of time to the given time field, based on the calendar's
rules.

protected void computeFields

Converts UTC as milliseconds to time field values.

protected void computeTime

Overrides Calendar Converts time field values to UTC as milliseconds.

boolean equalsObjectobj
Compares this GregorianCalendar to an object reference.

int getintfield
Gets the value for a given time field.

int getActualMaximumintfield
Return the maximum value that this field could have, given the current date.

int getActualMinimumintfield
Return the minimum value that this field could have, given the current date.

int getGreatestMinimumintfield
Returns highest minimum value for the given field if varies.

Date getGregorianChange
Gets the Gregorian Calendar change date.

10

int getLeastMaximumintfield
Returns lowest maximum value for the given field if varies.

11

int getMaximumintfield
Returns maximum value for the given field.

12

Date getTime
Gets this Calendar's current time.

13

long getTimeInMillis
Gets this Calendar's current time as a long.

14

TimeZone getTimeZone
Gets the time zone.

15

int getMinimumintfield
Returns minimum value for the given field.

16

int hashCode
Override hashCode.

17

boolean isLeapYearintyear
Determines if the given year is a leap year.

18

void rollintfield, booleanup

Adds or subtracts up/down a single unit of time on the given time field without changing
larger fields.

19

void setintfield, intvalue

Sets the time field with the given value.

20

void setintyear, intmonth, intdate

Sets the values for the fields year, month, and date.

21

void setintyear, intmonth, intdate, inthour, intminute

Sets the values for the fields year, month, date, hour, and minute.

22

void setintyear, intmonth, intdate, inthour, intminute, intsecond

Sets the values for the fields year, month, date, hour, minute, and second.

23

void setGregorianChangeDatedate
Sets the GregorianCalendar change date.

24

void setTimeDatedate
Sets this Calendar's current time with the given Date.

25

void setTimeInMillislongmillis
Sets this Calendar's current time from the given long value.

26

void setTimeZoneTimeZonevalue
Sets the time zone with the given time zone value.

27

String toString
Return a string representation of this calendar.

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 would produce the following result:

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

For a complete list of constant available in Calendar class, you can refer to standard Java
documentation.

documentation.

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