Is it possible to get java.util.Date object with specific format?

Question

I would like to ask about the usage of java.util.Date. Here is my sample class

         public class DateConverter {
           public static void main(Strin         


        

Answer 1

Is it possible to get Date object with specific format?

No. Date doesn't have any format. It represents the number of milliseconds since epoch. You only get the formatted string using SimpleDateFormat, which you already did.

Printing Date invokes the overridden Date#toString() method, which uses a default format, in which every Date is printed.

Here's how Date#toString() source looks like:

public String toString() {
    // "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy";
    BaseCalendar.Date date = normalize();
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(28);
    int index = date.getDayOfWeek();
    if (index == gcal.SUNDAY) {
        index = 8;
    }
    ....  // some more code
}

So the format used is "EEE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy"

Answer 2

Yes, extend Date adding the format field and override toString method, something along the lines of

public class DateWithFormat extends Date {
   String format; // Assign as appropriate
   public String toString() {
     return new SimpleDateFormat(format).format(this));
   } 
}