It’s Java-time.

I need this from time to time, and each time I have to look it up. A little reminder for myself.

How to create a date:

Date object representing “now”:

Date date = new Date();

Date object representing a specific time using Calendar:

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(2012, Calendar.DECEMBER, 21, 14, 21, 33);
Date date = cal.getTime();

Date object representing a specific time using SimpleDateFormat:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss");
Date date = sdf.parse("21/12/2012 14:21:33");

How to format a date:

Using SimpleDateFormat:

Date date = new Date();
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss");
String s = sdf.format(date);

There’s many more ways to do this, but these are just common ways.

Here is an overview of the format strings.

It’s taken from here.