tl;dr
Use java.time classes.
Instant.ofEpochSecond( 1_485_748_890L )
.atZone( ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) )
.toLocalDate()
.format(
DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern ( "dd-MM-uuuu" )
.withLocale ( Locale.UK )
)
29-01-2017
Joda-Time
If you want a date-only value without a time-of-day, you should be using the org.joda.time.LocalDate
class.
FYI, the Joda-Time project is now in maintenance mode, with the team advising migration to the java.time classes. Much of java.time is back-ported to Java 6, Java 7, and Android (see below).
java.time
The LocalDate
class represents a date-only value without time-of-day and without time zone.
LocalDate birthdate = LocalDate.of( 1994 , 5 , 10 );
If your input is a count of whole seconds since the epoch of first moment of 1970 in UTC (1970-01-01T00:00:00Z
), convert to an Instant
. The Instant
class represents a moment on the timeline in UTC with a resolution of nanoseconds (up to nine (9) digits of a decimal fraction).
Instant instant = Instant.ofEpochSecond( 1_485_748_890L );
To view this moment through the lens of a particular region’s wall-clock time, assign a time zone (ZoneId
) to get a ZonedDateTime
.
A time zone is crucial in determining a date. For any given moment, the date varies around the globe by zone. For example, a few minutes after midnight in Paris France is a new day while still “yesterday” in Montréal Québec.
Specify a proper time zone name in the format of continent/region
, such as America/Montreal
, Africa/Casablanca
, or Pacific/Auckland
. Never use the 3-4 letter abbreviation such as EST
or IST
as they are not true time zones, not standardized, and not even unique(!).
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
ZonedDateTime zdt = instant.atZone( z );
The LocalDate
class represents a date-only value without time-of-day and without time zone.
LocalDate ld = zdt.toLocalDate();
To generate a String representing the value of your object, call toString
for a string in standard ISO 8601 format, YYYY-MM-DD.
ld.toString(): 2017-01-29
For other formats, use the DateTimeFormatter
class. You can specify a formatting pattern, or let the class automatically localize.
DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern ( "dd-MM-uuuu" ).withLocale ( Locale.UK );
String output = ld.format ( f );
instant.toString(): 2017-01-30T04:01:30Z
zdt.toString(): 2017-01-29T23:01:30-05:00[America/Montreal]
ld.toString(): 2017-01-29
output: 29-01-2017
About java.time
The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date
, Calendar
, & SimpleDateFormat
.
The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.
To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.
Where to obtain the java.time classes?
- Java SE 8 and SE 9 and later
- Built-in.
- Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
- Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
- Java SE 6 and SE 7
- Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
- Android