How to format date and time in Android?

Question

How to format correctly according to the device configuration date and time when having a year, month, day, hour and minute?

Answer 1

Date to Locale date string:

Date date = new Date();
String stringDate = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance().format(date);

Options:

   DateFormat.getDateInstance() 

- > Dec 31, 1969

   DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance() 

-> Dec 31, 1969 4:00:00 PM

   DateFormat.getTimeInstance() 

-> 4:00:00 PM

Answer 2

Back to 2016, When I want to customize the format (not according to the device configuration, as you ask...) I usually use the string resource file:

in strings.xml:

<string name="myDateFormat"><xliff:g id="myDateFormat">%1$td/%1$tm/%1$tY</xliff:g></string>

In Activity:

Log.d(TAG, "my custom date format: "+getString(R.string.myDateFormat, new Date()));

This is also useful with the release of the new Date Binding Library.

So I can have something like this in layout file:

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/text_release_date"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="0dp"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:padding="2dp"
    android:text="@{@string/myDateFormat(vm.releaseDate)}"
    tools:text="0000"
    />

And in java class:

    MovieDetailViewModel vm = new MovieDetailViewModel();
    vm.setReleaseDate(new Date());

Answer 3

This code work for me!

Date d = new Date();
    CharSequence s = android.text.format.DateFormat.format("MM-dd-yy hh-mm-ss",d.getTime());
    Toast.makeText(this,s.toString(),Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

Answer 4

Use these two as a class variables:

 public java.text.DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
 private Calendar mDate = null;

And use it like this:

 mDate = Calendar.getInstance();
 mDate.set(year,months,day);                   
 dateFormat.format(mDate.getTime());

Answer 5

Use build in Time class!

Time time = new Time();
time.set(0, 0, 17, 4, 5, 1999);
Log.i("DateTime", time.format("%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S"));

Answer 6

Here is the simplest way:

    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss a", Locale.US);

    String time = df.format(new Date());

and If you are looking for patterns, check this https://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html