Java Dates
Java does not have a built-in Date class, but we can import the java.time package to work with the date and time API. The package includes many date and time classes. For example:
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
| LocalDate | Represents a date (year, month, day (yyyy-MM-dd)) |
| LocalTime | Represents a time (hour, minute, second and nanoseconds (HH-mm-ss-ns)) |
| LocalDateTime | Represents both a date and a time (yyyy-MM-dd-HH-mm-ss-ns) |
| DateTimeFormatter | Formatter for displaying and parsing date-time objects |
If you don't know what a package is, read our Java Packages Tutorial .
Display Current Date
To display the current date, import the java.time.LocalDate class, and use its now() method:
Example
import java.time.LocalDate; // import the LocalDate class
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalDate myObj = LocalDate.now(); // Create a date object
System.out.println(myObj); // Display the current date
}
}Display Current Time
To display the current time (hour, minute, second, and nanoseconds), import the java.time.LocalTime class, and use its now() method:
Example
import java.time.LocalTime; // import the LocalTime class
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalTime myObj = LocalTime.now();
System.out.println(myObj);
}
}Display Current Date and Time
To display the current date and time, import the java.time.LocalDateTime class, and use its now() method:
Example
import java.time.LocalDateTime; // import the LocalDateTime class
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalDateTime myObj = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println(myObj);
}
}Formatting Date and Time
The "T" in the example above is used to separate the date from the time. You can use the DateTimeFormatter class with the ofPattern() method in the same package to format or parse date-time objects. The following example will remove both the "T" and nanoseconds from the date-time:
Example
import java.time.LocalDateTime; // Import the LocalDateTime class
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter; // Import the DateTimeFormatter class
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalDateTime myDateObj = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println("Before formatting: " + myDateObj);
DateTimeFormatter myFormatObj = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
String formattedDate = myDateObj.format(myFormatObj);
System.out.println("After formatting: " + formattedDate);
}
}The ofPattern() method accepts all sorts of values, if you want to display the date and time in a different format. For example:
| Value | Example | Tryit |
|---|---|---|
| yyyy-MM-dd | "1988-09-29" | |
| dd/MM/yyyy | "29/09/1988" | |
| dd-MMM-yyyy | "29-Sep-1988" | |
| E, MMM dd yyyy | "Thu, Sep 29 1988" |