Android Calendar get current day of week as string

Question

i tried to get a string with the name of the actual weekday this way:

            Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
            int dayOfWeek = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

            if (c.get(Calendar.MONDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "monday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.TUESDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "tuesday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.WEDNESDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "wednesday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.THURSDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "thursday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.FRIDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "friday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.SATURDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "saturday";
            else if (c.get(Calendar.SUNDAY) == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "sunday";

but weekDay stays always null and i actually have no idea why because the debugger says that dayOfWeek is 5 so i should be equal to c.get(Calendar.THURSDAY)

What is the *type* of `c.get(`? An `int`? Or the `Integer` reference type? — nanofarad, Aug 15 '13 at 15:53
just use an array, why do you need if else. String[] days=new String[]{"Monday".... although it is safer to actually instantiate inside a method. days[Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.Day_OF_WEEK)] should do the trick. month and day are 0 based in the utils package — Andrew Scott Evans, Apr 29 '14 at 17:48

score 83 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 24 '14 at 10:58

83

As simple as this

sCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
String dayLongName = sCalendar.getDisplayName(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK, Calendar.LONG, Locale.getDefault());

answered Apr 24 '14 at 10:58

sandalone

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So that it uses the default locale... Is it able to use `Context` to get the locale? – Earth Engine Aug 26 '14 at 12:17
@EarthEngine `Locale.getDefault()` should return the locale of the android device. – Mateus Viccari Feb 15 '17 at 23:15

Don Gossett · Answer 2 · 2021-12-23T21:33:08.130

64

I accomplished this by doing the following:

String weekDay;
SimpleDateFormat dayFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.getDefault());

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
weekDay = dayFormat.format(calendar.getTime());

Use the day format for "EEEE" will return the full weekday name, i.e. Tuesday
Use the day format for "E" will return the the abbreviated name, i.e. Tue
Another benefit to returning this format in Android is that it will translate the weekday based on the locale.

You will want to review the SimpleDateFormat to learn more. I think this is the cleanest approach in that you do not need a switch or if statement if your only need is to get the string value.

edited Dec 23 '21 at 21:33

answered Nov 21 '13 at 11:21

Don Gossett

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9

This is definitely the best answer. Simple and beautiful. Thank u! Perhaps instead of Locale.US I would use Locale.getDefault(). – Joao Sousa Dec 18 '13 at 23:00
`Locale locale = itemView.getContext().getResources().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0)` – Mooing Duck Apr 04 '20 at 21:16

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 15 '13 at 15:59

You are supposed to compare dayOfWeek directly with Calendar.MONDAY etc. See code below

Also, I have put brackets around if else. Do not rely on indentation for code flow, explicitly put brackets even if your if-else has only one statement.

    public static void main(String[] args) {

    String weekDay = "";

    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    int dayOfWeek = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

    if (Calendar.MONDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "monday";
    } else if (Calendar.TUESDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "tuesday";
    } else if (Calendar.WEDNESDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "wednesday";
    } else if (Calendar.THURSDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "thursday";
    } else if (Calendar.FRIDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "friday";
    } else if (Calendar.SATURDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "saturday";
    } else if (Calendar.SUNDAY == dayOfWeek) {
        weekDay = "sunday";
    }

    System.out.println(weekDay);

}

Oscerd · Answer 4 · 2013-08-15T16:08:17.327

There was no need to use the c.get

    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    int dayOfWeek = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);                

    if (Calendar.MONDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "monday";
    else if (Calendar.TUESDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "tuesday";
    else if (Calendar.WEDNESDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "wednesday";
    else if (Calendar.THURSDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "thursday";
    else if (Calendar.FRIDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "friday";
    else if (Calendar.SATURDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "saturday";
    else if (Calendar.SUNDAY == dayOfWeek) weekDay = "sunday";

    System.out.println(weekDay);

and output:

thursday

You can see your error if you try to print the values with c.get with this code

    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.MONDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.TUESDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.WEDNESDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.THURSDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.FRIDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.SATURDAY));
    System.out.println(c.get(Calendar.SUNDAY));

For example I get:

And the result will be incorrect, in my case I get Sunday as weekDay if I use your code.

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 22 '14 at 09:04

3

just do the following:

    Date date = new Date();
    CharSequence time = DateFormat.format("EEEE", date.getTime()); // gives like (Wednesday)

answered Oct 22 '14 at 09:04

Muhammed Refaat

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gifpif · Answer 6 · 2018-01-02T10:32:13.630

2

try this

import java.text.DateFormatSymbols;
import java.util.Date;
...
String[] weekdays = new DateFormatSymbols().getWeekdays();
String[] month = new DateFormatSymbols().getMonths();
System.outprintln(weekdays[date.getDay()+1]+","+month[date.getMonth()]+" "+date.getDate());

edited Jan 02 '18 at 10:32

answered Oct 14 '13 at 16:47

gifpif

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Android Calendar get current day of week as string

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