Introduction to Java: Date

Posted by Hayri Cicek on September 09, 2019

To get the current date is really simple in Java, you just instantiate the Date object from the java.util package.

Date currentDate = new Date();

import java.util.Date;

public class GetCurrentDate {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Date currentDate = new Date();
        System.out.println("Current Date: " + currentDate);
    }
}

Output:

$ javac GetCurrentDate.java
$ java GetCurrentDate

Current Date: Mon Sep 09 18:26:04 CEST 2019

We can easily format this date.

import java.util.Date;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;

public class FormatCurrentDate {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        Date currentDate = new Date();
        System.out.println("Current Date: " + formatter.format(currentDate));
    }
}

Output:

$ javac FormatCurrentDate.java
$ java FormatCurrentDate
Current Date: 2019-09-09 18:29:45

LocalDate
With LocalDate we only get the current date without time.

import java.time.LocalDate;

public class LocalDateExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate currentDate = LocalDate.now();

        System.out.println("Current Date : " + currentDate);
    }
}

Output:

$ javac LocalDateExample.java
$ java LocalDateExample
Current Date : 2019-09-09

LocalTime
LocalDate will only get current date, and LocalTime will only show current time without date.

import java.time.LocalTime;

public class LocalTimeExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();

        System.out.println("Current Time: " + localTime);
    }
}

Output:

$ javac LocalTimeExample.java
$ java LocalTimeExample
Current Time: 18:39:02.125

We can use DateTimeFormatter to format LocalDate and LocalTime if we want to.

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;

public class FormatLocalDateAndLocalTime {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
        LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();
        DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy");
        DateTimeFormatter timeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm:ss");

        System.out.println("Formatted LocalDate : " + localDate.format(dateFormatter));
        System.out.println("Formatted LocalTime : " + localTime.format(timeFormatter));
    }
}

Output:

$ javac FormatLocalDateAndLocalTime.java
$ java FormatLocalDateAndLocalTime
Formatted LocalDate : 09-09-2019
Formatted LocalTime : 18:44:57

LocalDateTime
LocalDateTime is the combination of LocalDate and LocalTime, which will hold the value of both the date and time.

import java.time.LocalDateTime;

public class LocalDateTimeExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDateTime curentDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();

        System.out.println("Current DateTime " + curentDateTime);
    }
}

Output:

$ javac LocalDateTimeExample.java
$ java LocalDateTimeExample
Current DateTime 2019-09-09T18:48:38.654

Use the DateTimeFormatter to format the date and time:

import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;

public class FormatLocalDateTimeExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDateTime currentDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
        DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");

        System.out.println("Current Date Time " + currentDateTime.format(formatter));
    }
}

Output:

$ javac FormatLocalDateTimeExample.java
$ java FormatLocalDateTimeExample
Current Date Time 09-09-2019 19:11:59

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