Date Time Format in java programming (V28)

 Date and Time

Java provides a built-in Date class available in the java.util package. This class encapsulates the current date and time.

The Date class supports two constructors as shown in the table below:

Nº	Constructor	Description
1	Date()	This constructor initializes the object with the current date and time.
2	Date(long millisec)	This constructor accepts an argument that represents the number of milliseconds that have passed since midnight, January 1, 1970.

Current Date and Time

This is the simplest method to get the current date and time in Java. You can use a basic Date object with the toString() method to display the current date and time as shown below:

Source Code:

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import java.util.Date;
public class DateTime {

   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());
   }
}

Result:

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 a user-defined pattern for formatting dates.

SimpleDateFormat Format Codes

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

Character	Description	Example
G	Era designator	AD
y	Year in four digits	2001
M	Month in year	July or 07
d	Day in month	10
h	Hour in A.M/P.M (1~12)	12
H	Hour in day (0~23)	22
m	Minute in hour	30
s	Second in minute	55
S	Millisecond	234
E	Day in week	Tuesday
D	Day in year	360
F	Day of week in month	2 (second Wed. in July)
w	Week in year	40
W	Week in month	1
a	A.M/P.M marker	PM
k	Hour in day (1~24)	24
K	Hour in A.M/P.M (0~11)	10
z	Time zone	Eastern Standard Time
'	Escape for text	Delimiter
"	Single quote	'

Source Code:

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

public class DateFormat {

   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));
   }
}

Result:

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