DateFormat and SimpleDateFormat

http://www.studytrails.com/java/date/java-DateFormat-SimpleDateFormat.jsp

java.text.DateFormat - This is an abstract class and provider methods to obtain an instance using a locale or formatting style. Look at the examples below for more details.

java.text.SimpleDateFormat - This class provides methods for parsing (text->date) and formatting (date->text) date in a locale sensitive manner. The parse method allows parsing data in any user defined format. Here are some rules that are helpful :

• For formatting text, if the number of repeating pattern letters is 4 or more, then the full form is used, else abbreviation is used.
• for formatting digits, the number of repeating pattern letters determines the minumum number of digits. if the value is less than this then the numbers are padded.
• For month if the number of pattern letters is three or more a text value is used for month, otherwise a number value is used.

Next let us look at examples

Create Instances of DateFormat

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// create a date object for testing Date date = new Date(); // create a date instance using default style DateFormat format = DateFormat.getDateInstance(); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 29 Jul, 2013   // create a dateinstance using short style format = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 29/7/13   // create a dateinstance using medium style (Default) format = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 29 Jul, 2013   // create a dateinstance using full style (Default) format = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.FULL); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // Monday, 29 July, 2013   // create a dateinstance using long style (Default) format = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 29 July, 2013   // create time instance - default format = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 8:24:59 PM   // create time instance - short format = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 8:26 PM   // create time instance - medium format = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 8:26:21 PM   // create time instance - full format = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 8:26:21 PM IST   // create time instance - long format = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 8:26:21 PM IST   // create date time instance - default. format = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // 29 Jul, 2013 8:27:22 PM   // create date time instance - specify format and locale. format = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL, DateFormat.FULL, Locale.GERMAN); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // Montag, 29. Juli 2013 20:57 Uhr IST

Print Date in different timezone (e.g UTC)

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format = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL, DateFormat.FULL); format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone( "UTC" )); System.out.println(format.format(date)); // Monday, 29 July, 2013 3:29:45 PM UTC

Parse date string (including ISO 8601 format)

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try {      // parsing date yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss      SimpleDateFormat simpleFormat = (SimpleDateFormat) DateFormat.getDateInstance();      simpleFormat.applyPattern( "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss" );        // parse date 2013-04-12 10:02:12      date = simpleFormat.parse( "2013-04-12 10:02:12" );      System.out.println(date); // Fri Apr 12 10:02:12 IST 2013        // parsing "1 April 2013 at 10:00 AM EST"      simpleFormat.applyPattern( "dd MMMMM yyyy 'at' HH:mm a z" );      date = simpleFormat.parse( "1 April 2013 at 10:00 AM EST" );      System.out.println(date); // Mon Apr 01 20:30:00 IST 2013      System.out.println(simpleFormat.getTimeZone().getID()); // America/New_York        // parsing 1-Apr-13 23:22:00+500      simpleFormat.applyPattern( "dd-MMM-yy HH:mm:ssZ" );      date = simpleFormat.parse( "1-Apr-13 23:22:00+0500" );        format.setTimeZone(simpleFormat.getTimeZone());      System.out.println(format.format(date)); // Monday, 1 April, 2013                                              // 2:22:00 PM EDT        // parse 2013-07-29T18:00:00-04:00 ISO 8601 format      simpleFormat.applyPattern( "yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssXXX" );      date = simpleFormat.parse( "2013-07-29T18:00:00-04:00" );            format.setTimeZone(simpleFormat.getTimeZone());      System.out.println(format.format(date)); //Monday, 29 July, 2013 6:00:00 PM EDT   } catch (Exception e) {      e.printStackTrace(); }