DateFormat and SimpleDateFormat Examples

Default date formats
The java.text.DateFormat class, and its concrete subclass java.text.SimpleDateFormat, provide a convenient way to convert strings with date and/or time info to and from java.util.Date objects. Figure 1 shows an example of using default DateFormat objects to format a date in a variety of ways:

// Make a new Date object. 
//It will be initialized to the current time.        
Date now = new Date();        
// See what toString() returns        
System.out.println(" 1. " + now.toString());        
// Next, try the default DateFormat        
System.out.println(" 2. " + DateFormat.getInstance().format(now));        
// And the default time and date-time DateFormats        
System.out.println(" 3. " + DateFormat.getTimeInstance().format(now));
System.out.println(" 4. " + DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance().format(now));
// Next, try the short, medium and long variants of the
// default time format        
System.out.println(" 5. " + DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT).format(now));        
System.out.println(" 6. " + DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM).format(now));        
System.out.println(" 7. " + DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG).format(now));        
// For the default date-time format, the length of both the        
// date and time elements can be specified. 
Here are some examples:        
System.out.println(" 8. " + DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance
                      (DateFormat.SHORT, DateFormat.SHORT).format(now));
System.out.println(" 9. " + DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance
                       (DateFormat.MEDIUM, DateFormat.SHORT).format(now));
System.out.println("10. " + DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance
                       (DateFormat.LONG, DateFormat.LONG).format(now));

Output:

 1. Tue Nov 04 20:14:11 EST 2003
 2. 11/4/03 8:14 PM
 3. 8:14:11 PM
 4. Nov 4, 2003 8:14:11 PM
 5. 8:14 PM
 6. 8:14:11 PM
 7. 8:14:11 PM EST
 8. 11/4/03 8:14 PM
 9. Nov 4, 2003 8:14 PM
10. November 4, 2003 8:14:11 PM EST