Right way to format date with strings like today, yesterday, tomorrow etc

Question

I have a date textview. And my textview holds a date string like 2011.09.17. Well I still do want to have that but I also want to add some more user friendly info for some speci

Answer 1

Try this, i implemented it using joda-datatime2.2.jar and java SimpleDateFormat

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import org.joda.time.DateMidnight;
import org.joda.time.DateTime;
import org.joda.time.Days;
public class SmartDateTimeUtil {
private static String getHourMinuteString(Date date){
    SimpleDateFormat hourMinuteFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(" h:m a");
    return hourMinuteFormat.format(date);
}

private static String getDateString(Date date){
    SimpleDateFormat dateStringFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE',' MMM d y',' h:m a");
    return dateStringFormat.format(date);
}

private static boolean isToday (DateTime dateTime) {
       DateMidnight today = new DateMidnight();
       return today.equals(dateTime.toDateMidnight());
}

private static boolean isYesterday (DateTime dateTime) {
       DateMidnight yesterday = (new DateMidnight()).minusDays(1);
       return yesterday.equals(dateTime.toDateMidnight());
}

private static boolean isTomorrow(DateTime dateTime){
    DateMidnight tomorrow = (new DateMidnight()).plusDays(1);
       return tomorrow.equals(dateTime.toDateMidnight());
}
private static String getDayString(Date date) {
        SimpleDateFormat weekdayFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE',' h:m a");
        String s;
        if (isToday(new DateTime(date)))
            s = "Today";
        else if (isYesterday(new DateTime(date)))
            s = "Yesterday," + getHourMinuteString(date);
        else if(isTomorrow(new DateTime(date)))
            s = "Tomorrow," +getHourMinuteString(date);
        else
            s = weekdayFormat.format(date);
        return s;
}

public static String getDateString_shortAndSmart(Date date) {
        String s;
        DateTime nowDT = new DateTime();
        DateTime dateDT = new DateTime(date);
        int days = Days.daysBetween(dateDT, nowDT).getDays();   
        if (isToday(new DateTime(date)))
            s = "Today,"+getHourMinuteString(date);
        else if (days < 7)
            s = getDayString(date);
        else
            s = getDateString(date);
        return s;
}

}

Simple cases to use and test the Util class:

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

public class SmartDateTimeUtilTest {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println("Date now:"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(new Date()));
        System.out.println("Date 5 days before :"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(getFutureDay(-5)));
        System.out.println("Date 1 day before :"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(getFutureDay(-1)));
        System.out.println("Date last month:"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(getFutureMonth(-1)));
        System.out.println("Date last year:"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(getFutureDate(-1)));
        System.out.println("Date 1 day after :"+SmartDateTimeUtil.getDateString_shortAndSmart(getFutureDay(1)));
    }
    public static Date getFutureDate(int numberOfYears){
        Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
        c.setTime(new Date());
        c.add(Calendar.YEAR, numberOfYears); 
        return c.getTime();
    }
    public static Date getFutureMonth(int numberOfYears){
        Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
        c.setTime(new Date());
        c.add(Calendar.MONTH, numberOfYears); 
        return c.getTime();
    }

    public static Date getFutureDay(int numberOfYears){
        Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
        c.setTime(new Date());
        c.add(Calendar.DATE, numberOfYears); 
        return c.getTime();
    }
}