java.util.Date is generating a wrong date?

Question

Here's my code:

java.util.Date TODAY = new java.util.Date();     
SimpleDateFormat SDF = new SimpleDateFormat( "YYYY-MM-DD" );
System.out.println ( SDF.format( TODAY ) );'

And the result is:

2015-02-33

But today's date is 2015-02-02!

What may be the reason behind this wrong output?

Use `yyyy-MM-dd` instead, see the patterns: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html. — sp00m, Feb 02 '15 at 10:56
`YYYY` would give nasty surprises around new year time! http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8686331/y-returns-2012-while-y-returns-2011-in-simpledateformat — weston, Feb 02 '15 at 11:02

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Jul 07 '17 at 08:50

5

You want to use the yyyy year and dd day of the month.

However, I suggest you migrate to JSR-310 which is built into Java 8 and available for earlier versions of Java. The same code is

System.out.println(LocalDate.now());

prints

2105-02-02

edited Jul 07 '17 at 08:50

Ole V.V.

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answered Feb 02 '15 at 11:00

Peter Lawrey

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I concur. I tend to prefer `LocalDate.now(ZoneId.systemDefault())` to make explicit that getting today’s date is a time zone dependent operation and that you have made a choice of time zone to use. – Ole V.V. Jul 07 '17 at 08:51

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 02 '15 at 11:14

What may be the reason behind this Wrong Output ?

Your assumptions about the date format string are wrong, the output is correct.

y   Year
Y   Week year
D   Day in year
d   Day in month
M   Month in year
m   Minute in hour

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Y Week year will usually give incorrect results around new year. D will give incorrect results from February. So your format appeared fine most of last month.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 07 '16 at 18:24

When format for SimpleDateFormat is specified as follows:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("YYYY-MM-DD");

the YYYY - means week year,
the MM - means month,
the DD - means day in year.

Week year here is not what you wanted. See what is week year.

Your today's date is 2015-02-02, which means that it is 32 days since the beginning of the year 2015 passed and your are on the 33 day. That is why you get date "2015-02-33".

To mean year (and not week year) and day in month change format to SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

java.util.Date is generating a wrong date?

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