How to Format Date and Time in Java

In this example we will show how to format date and time in Java.

Source Code

package com.beginner.examples;

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

public class FormateDate {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
  
    LocalDateTime now = LocalDateTime.now();
    System.out.println("Now is : " + now); // current date
    
    DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"); 
    String date = f.format(now); // formate date
    System.out.println("After formatting : " + date);  
  }
}

Output:

Now is : 2020-05-13T08:27:08.974
After formatting : 2020-05-13 08:27:08

References

Imported packages in Java documentation:

How to Format Date and Time in Java

In this example we will show three different methods to format date and time in Java.

Source Code

1) Using java.text.SimpleDateFormat


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

public class DateFormatExample1 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
DateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
Date time = new Date();
System.out.println(df1.format(time));
System.out.println(df2.format(time));
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

2) Using String.format()


package com.beginner.examples;

import java.util.Date;

public class DateFormatExample2 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

String format1 = "%1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td %1$tH:%1$tM:%1$tS";
String format2 = "%1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td";
Date time = new Date();
System.out.println(String.format(format1, time));
System.out.println(String.format(format2, time));
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

3) Using java.util.Calendar

package com.beginner.examples;

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateFormatExample3 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Date time = new Date();
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
c.setTime(time);
int yyyy = c.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int MM = c.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1;
int dd = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
int HH = c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int mm = c.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int ss = c.get(Calendar.SECOND);
String time1 = String.valueOf(yyyy) + "-" + autoFill(MM) + "-" + autoFill(dd) ;
String time2 = time1 + " " + autoFill(HH) + ":" + autoFill(mm) + ":" + autoFill(ss);
System.out.println(time2);
System.out.println(time1);
}
private static String autoFill(int num) {
String result = "";
result = String.format("%02d",num);
return result;
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

Tips

Similarly, you can convert date time to formats like “dd-MMM-yyyy”,”dd/MM/yyyy”,”yyyy.MM.dd.HH.mm.ss”,etc.

References

Imported packages in Java documentation: