Convert Date String into Epoch in Java

Question

Is there a way to convert a given Date String into Milliseconds (Epoch Long format) in java? Example : I want to convert

public static final String date = "04/28/2016";

into milliseconds (epoch).

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6687433/convert-date-format-to-epoch — yogidilip, Apr 21 '16 at 14:26
yes, but first you need to parse your `String` as `Date` and then call `getTime()` on it. — Palcente, Apr 21 '16 at 14:32

Paul Ostrowski · Answer 1 · 2019-06-26T21:27:00.000

15

The getTime() method of the Date class returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this Date object.

edited Jun 26 '19 at 21:27

answered Apr 21 '16 at 14:30

Paul Ostrowski

1,968
16
21

I'm getting `Cannot make a static reference to the non-static method getTime() from the type Date`, so I had to use `new Date().getTime()` instead. – CyberMew Jan 04 '19 at 14:41

aichy · Answer 2 · 2017-07-20T06:27:21.020

8

You can simply parse it to java.util.Date using java.text.SimpleDateFormat and call it's getTime() function. It will return the number of milliseconds since Jan 01 1970.

public static final String strDate = "04/28/2016";
try {
    Long millis = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").parse(strDate).getTime();
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

edited Jul 20 '17 at 06:27

answered Apr 21 '16 at 14:44

aichy

81
2
6

does parse work on date object? – AJC Jul 12 '17 at 21:44
`Date d = SimpleDateFormat(String pattern).parse(String strDate);` It parses a string (formatted date) by a pattern specified and returns a `java.util.Date` object. – aichy Jul 18 '17 at 06:34
[Specified in Java8SE Doc](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html#parse-java.lang.String-java.text.ParsePosition-) – aichy Jul 19 '17 at 14:48
Right. That was my understanding too. But the snippet in the answer confused me as there were no mention that date was a String – AJC Jul 19 '17 at 16:10
Yes. Sorry about that. I have edited the answer and renamed the variable to make it more clear. – aichy Jul 20 '17 at 06:29

Albert · Answer 3 · 2016-04-22T02:56:04.373

1

You can create a Calendar object and then set it's date to the date you want and then call its getTimeInMillis() method.

Calendar c = new Calendar.getInstance();
c.set(2016, 3, 28);
c.getTimeInMillis();

If you want to convert the String directly into the date you can try this:

String date = "4/28/2016";
String[] dateSplit = date.split("/");
c.set(Integer.valueOf(dateSplit[2]), Integer.valueOf(dateSplit[0]) - 1, Integer.valueOf(dateSplit[1]));
c.getTimeInMillis();

edited Apr 22 '16 at 02:56

answered Apr 21 '16 at 14:29

Albert

337
1
10

Warning in the Calendar class, the month starts from 0 so April is 3 not 4 – Nicolas Filotto Apr 21 '16 at 16:00

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 21 '16 at 15:53

You will need to use Calendar instance for getting millisecond from epoch

try {
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
    java.util.Date d = sdf.parse("04/28/2016");
    /*
     * Returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this Date object.
     */
    System.out.println(d.getTime());
    //OR
    Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
    cal.set(2016, 3, 28);
    //the current time as UTC milliseconds from the epoch.
    System.out.println(cal.getTimeInMillis());
} catch (ParseException e) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Convert Date String into Epoch in Java

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