In this example we will show how to format date and time in Java.

Source Code

package com.beginner.examples;

import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;

public class FormateDate {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
  
    LocalDateTime now = LocalDateTime.now();
    System.out.println("Now is : " + now); // current date
    
    DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"); 
    String date = f.format(now); // formate date
    System.out.println("After formatting : " + date);  
  }
}

Output:

Now is : 2020-05-13T08:27:08.974
After formatting : 2020-05-13 08:27:08

References

Imported packages in Java documentation:

• LocalDateTime
• Formatter
• Date
• Time
• Formatter
• Date
• LocalDate
• Format
• DateTimeFormatter

In this example we will show three different methods to format date and time in Java.

Source Code

1) Using java.text.SimpleDateFormat

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateFormatExample1 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
DateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
Date time = new Date();
System.out.println(df1.format(time));
System.out.println(df2.format(time));
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

2) Using String.format()

package com.beginner.examples;

import java.util.Date;

public class DateFormatExample2 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

String format1 = "%1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td %1$tH:%1$tM:%1$tS";
String format2 = "%1$tY-%1$tm-%1$td";
Date time = new Date();
System.out.println(String.format(format1, time));
System.out.println(String.format(format2, time));
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

3) Using java.util.Calendar

package com.beginner.examples;

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

public class DateFormatExample3 {

public static void main(String[] args) {

Date time = new Date();
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
c.setTime(time);
int yyyy = c.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int MM = c.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1;
int dd = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
int HH = c.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int mm = c.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int ss = c.get(Calendar.SECOND);
String time1 = String.valueOf(yyyy) + "-" + autoFill(MM) + "-" + autoFill(dd) ;
String time2 = time1 + " " + autoFill(HH) + ":" + autoFill(mm) + ":" + autoFill(ss);
System.out.println(time2);
System.out.println(time1);
}
private static String autoFill(int num) {
String result = "";
result = String.format("%02d",num);
return result;
}
}

Output:

2019-01-27 11:06:13
2019-01-27

Tips

Similarly, you can convert date time to formats like “dd-MMM-yyyy”,”dd/MM/yyyy”,”yyyy.MM.dd.HH.mm.ss”,etc.

References

Imported packages in Java documentation:

• Calendar
• Date