Converting seconds to date time String

Question

I have seconds from epoch time and want to convert it to Day-Month-Year HH:MM
I have tried following but it gives me wrong value.

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(seconds*1000);
String dateString = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK) + ", "+.......

Above code is not working properly am i doing anything wrong here.

For example if seconds = 1299671538 then it generates time string as Friday, December 12, 1969 which is wrong it should display Wednesday, March 09, 2011

How is it wrong? People cannot help you without more information — I82Much, Mar 09 '11 at 12:27
I ran this: `System.out.println(new Date(1299671538*1000)); System.out.println(new Date().getTime());` — z7sg Ѫ, Mar 09 '11 at 12:41
Still not getting you, I have not used `Date` anywhere in my code are you suggesting me to use `Date`?? — User7723337, Mar 09 '11 at 12:45

Volo · Accepted Answer · 2011-03-09T13:41:05.307

For example if seconds = 1299671538 then it generates time string as Friday, December 12, 1969 which is wrong it should display Wednesday, March 09, 2011

You have integer overflow. Just use the following (notice "L" after 1000 constant):

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(seconds*1000L);
String dateString = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK) + ", "+.......

or better use SimpleDateFormat class:

SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, MMMM d, yyyy HH:mm");
String dateString = formatter.format(new Date(seconds * 1000L));

this will give you the following date string for your original seconds input: Wednesday, March 9, 2011 13:52

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 24 '12 at 09:51

5

You need to use

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));

instead of

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();

because UTC time from seconds depends on Timezone.

answered Oct 24 '12 at 09:51

Hanis

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z7sg Ѫ · Answer 3 · 2011-03-09T12:53:54.500

2

You don't need a calendar in this case, you can simply use the constructor new Date(1000 * seconds)

Then use a SimpleDateFormat to create a String to display it.

For a full explanation on using SimpleDateFormat go here.

The answer to this question though is that you need to use long values instead of ints.

new Date(1299674566000l)

If you don't believe me, run this:

    int secondsInt = 1299674566;
    System.out.println(new Date(secondsInt *1000));
    long secondsLong = 1299674566;
    System.out.println(new Date(secondsLong *1000));

edited Mar 09 '11 at 12:53

answered Mar 09 '11 at 12:32

z7sg Ѫ

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Can you please give me an example, as i am not able to figure it out, that how to use Date with SimpleDateFormat class. – User7723337 Mar 09 '11 at 12:37
Yes I am using Long vales not Int, but still my out put is not correct. – User7723337 Mar 09 '11 at 12:47

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 21 '11 at 22:42

I can confirm that answer from @Idolon is working fine, simple snippet is below...

long created = 1300563523;
SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm", Locale.US);
String dateString = formatter.format(new Date(created * 1000L));

using SimpleDateFormat is better way, change the format as you need.

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 09 '11 at 13:06

0

Won't it work wihtout Calendar, like below? Haven't run this piece of code, but guess it should work .

CharSequence theDate = DateFormat.format("Day-Month-Year HH:MM", objDate);

answered Mar 09 '11 at 13:06

redGREENblue

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Converting seconds to date time String

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