Java DateFormat

Jakob Jenkov
Last update: 2014-06-23

The java.text.DateFormat class is used to format dates as strings according to a specific Locale. Different countries have different standards for how they format dates. In Denmark dates are written using the format dd-mm-yyyy, but in the US they format dates using the format mm-dd-yyyy.

Creating a DateFormat

You create a DateFormat using the getDateInstance() and getTimeInstance() method of the DateFormat class. Here is an example:

Locale locale = new Locale("da", "DK");

DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(
                            DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);

As you can see, the getDateInstance() method takes two parameters. The first parameter tells which date format to use. The second parameter is the Locale to use.

The date format parameter can be chosen among the following constants in the DateFormat class:

DateFormat.DEFAULT
DateFormat.SHORT
DateFormat.MEDIUM
DateFormat.LONG
DateFormat.FULL

Exactly how the formatted date ends up looking for each date format used depends on the Locale.

Formatting Dates

Formatting dates is done using the format() method. Here is an example:

Locale locale = new Locale("da", "DK");
DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(
                            DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);

String date = dateFormat.format(new Date());
System.out.println(date);

The output printed from this code when executed on nov. 1st 2012 would be:

01-11-2012

If executed with a UK Locale the output would be:

Nov 1, 2012

Formatting Time

In order to format only time and not the date itself, you need a time instance of the DateFormat class. You create such an instance using the getTimeInstance() method. Here is an example:

Locale locale = new Locale("da", "DK");
DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(
                            DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);

String date = dateFormat.format(new Date());
System.out.println(date);

The output printed from that code could look like this:

12:43:37

Formatting Date and Time

Formatting a date including both date and time is done using a date-time instance. You create such an instance using the getDateTimeInstance() method. Here is an example:

Locale locale = new Locale("da", "DK");
//Locale locale = new Locale("en", "UK");
DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(
        DateFormat.DEFAULT,DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);

String date = dateFormat.format(new Date());
System.out.println(date);

Notice that the getDateTimeInstance() method takes two format parameters. One for the date, and one for the time.

Here is an example output from this code:

01-11-2012 13:07:08

Jakob Jenkov

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