Formatting the Time and Date for Display

Author: prupwal
Published? true
FormatLanguage: WikiFormat

Problem:

I want to display the date and time in different standard formats. What is the the easiest approach to achieve this?

Solution:

DateFormat class provides APIs for formatting time and date in custom format. Using these APIs requires minimal efforts to fulfil the requirement.

Discussion:

Please refer the below code which adds 5 different TextViews for showing the time and date in different formats.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    >
<TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:id="@+id/textview1"
    />
<TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:id="@+id/textview2"
    />
    <TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:id="@+id/textview3"
    />
    <TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:id="@+id/textview4"
    />
    <TextView  
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    android:id="@+id/textview5"
    />

</LinearLayout>

Below code obtains the current time and date using java.util.Date class and then displays it in different formats (Please refer the comments for sample outputs):

package com.sym.dateformatdemo;

import java.util.Calendar;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.text.format.DateFormat;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class TestDateFormatterActivity extends Activity {
    /** Called when the activity is first created. */
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        TextView textView1 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview1);
        TextView textView2 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview2);
        TextView textView3 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview3);
        TextView textView4 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview4);
        TextView textView5 = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.textview5);
                
        String delegate = "MM/dd/yy hh:mm a"; // 09/21/2011 02:17 pm
        java.util.Date noteTS = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
        textView1.setText("Found Time :: "+DateFormat.format(delegate,noteTS));
        
        delegate = "MMM dd, yyyy h:mm aa"; // Sep 21,2011 02:17 pm
        textView2.setText("Found Time :: "+DateFormat.format(delegate,noteTS)); 
        
        delegate = "MMMM dd, yyyy h:mmaa"; //September 21,2011 02:17pm
        textView3.setText("Found Time :: "+DateFormat.format(delegate,noteTS)); 
        
        delegate = "E, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm:ss aa";//Wed, September 21,2011 02:17:48 pm
        textView4.setText("Found Time :: "+DateFormat.format(delegate,noteTS)); 
        
        delegate = "EEEE, MMMM dd, yyyy h:mm aa"; //Wednesday, September 21,2011 02:17:48 pm
        textView5.setText("Found Time :: "+DateFormat.format(delegate,noteTS)); 
    }
}

See Also: