Java Format date time
In this chapter you will learn:
- What specifiers to use to format time and date
- Format List
- Example - How to show month by name and number
- Example - How to display standard 12-hour time format
- Example - How to display complete time and date information
- How to just display hour and minute
- How to display day of month as a decimal
Description
%t formats time and date information.
%t specifier requires the use of a suffix to describe the portion and
precise format of the time or date desired.
Format List
The time and date suffixes are shown in the following table.
| Suffix | Replaced By |
|---|---|
| a | Abbreviated weekday name |
| A | Full weekday name |
| b | Abbreviated month name |
| B | Full month name |
| c | Standard date and time string formatted as day month date hh::mm:ss tzone year |
| C | First two digits of year |
| d | Day of month as a decimal (01-31) |
| D | month/day/year |
| e | Day of month as a decimal (1-31) |
| F | year-month-day |
| h | Abbreviated month name |
| H | Hour (00 to 23) |
| I | Hour (01 to 12) |
| j | Day of year as a decimal (001 to 366) |
| k | Hour (0 to 23) |
| l | Hour (1 to 12) |
| L | Millisecond (000 to 999) |
| m | Month as decimal (01 to 13) |
| M | Minute as decimal (00 to 59) |
| N | Nanosecond (000000000 to 999999999) |
| p | Locale's equivalent of AM or PM in lowercase |
| Q | Milliseconds from 1/1/1970 |
| r | hh:mm:ss (12-hour format) |
| R | hh:mm (24-hour format) |
| S | Seconds (00 to 60) |
| s | Seconds from 1/1/1970 UTC |
| T | hh:mm:ss (24-hour format) |
| y | Year in decimal without century (00 to 99) |
| Y | Year in decimal including century (0001 to 9999) |
| z | Offset from UTC |
| Z | Time zone name |
To display minutes, you would use %tM, and
M indicates minutes in a two-character field.
The argument corresponding to the %t specifier must be of type Calendar, Date, Long, or long.
Example
The following code shows how to use format('%tB %tb %tm', cal, cal, cal) to display month name and month number.
//w ww. j a v a 2 s . c om
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Formatter;
public class Main {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
// Display month by name and number.
fmt = new Formatter();
fmt.format("%tB %tb %tm", cal, cal, cal);
System.out.println(fmt);
}
}
The output:
Example 2
The following code displays standard 12-hour time format.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Formatter;
// w ww . j a v a 2 s. c o m
public class Main {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
// Display standard 12-hour time format.
fmt.format("%tr", cal);
System.out.println(fmt);//
}
}
The output:
Example 3
The following code uses the %tc to display time and date information
in a complete form.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Formatter;
// ww w .ja v a 2 s . c om
public class Main {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
// Display complete time and date information.
fmt = new Formatter();
fmt.format("%tc", cal);
System.out.println(fmt);
}
}
The output:
Example 4
The following code only shows the hour and minute information.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Formatter;
// w w w. j ava 2 s . c o m
public class Main {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
// Display just hour and minute.
fmt = new Formatter();
fmt.format("%tl:%tM", cal, cal);
System.out.println(fmt);
}
}
The output:
Example 5
The following code displays day of month as a decimal.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Formatter;
/*from w ww . j av a 2 s . c o m*/
public class Main {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Formatter fmt = new Formatter();
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
fmt.format("Today is day %te of %<tB, %<tY", cal);
System.out.println(fmt);
}
}
The output:
Next chapter...
What you will learn in the next chapter:
Java Format Specifier
Java Format Specifier Uppercase
Java Format Precision
Java Format Flags
Java Format Justifying Output
Java Format Negative and Positive
Java Format Line up Space
Java Format Parentheses
Java Format Zero Padding
Java Format Comma
Java Format Alternate Conversion
Java Format Argument Index