What is the easiest way to get the current day of the week in Android?

Question

What would be the easiest way to get the current day of the week in Android?

Answer 1

The Java Calendar class works.

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
int day = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK); 

switch (day) {
    case Calendar.SUNDAY:
        // Current day is Sunday
        break;
    case Calendar.MONDAY:
        // Current day is Monday
        break;
    case Calendar.TUESDAY:
        // etc.
        break;
}

---

For much better datetime handling consider using the Java 8 time API:

String day = LocalDate.now().getDayOfWeek().name()

To use this below Android SDK 26 you'll need to enable Java 8 desugaring in build.gradle:

android {
  defaultConfig {
    // Required when setting minSdkVersion to 20 or lower
    multiDexEnabled true
  }

  compileOptions {
    // Flag to enable support for the new language APIs
    coreLibraryDesugaringEnabled true
    // Sets Java compatibility to Java 8
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
  }
}

dependencies {
  coreLibraryDesugaring 'com.android.tools:desugar_jdk_libs:1.0.9'
}

More information on Android's Java 8 support: https://developer.android.com/studio/write/java8-support

Answer 2

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
Date date = calendar.getTime();
// 3 letter name form of the day
System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("EE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(date.getTime()));
// full name form of the day
System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(date.getTime()));

Result (for today):

Sat
Saturday

---

UPDATE: java8

LocalDate date = LocalDate.now();
DayOfWeek dow = date.getDayOfWeek();
System.out.println("Enum = " + dow);

String dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.FULL, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("FULL = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.FULL_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("FULL_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.NARROW, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("NARROW = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.NARROW_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("NARROW_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("SHORT = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("SHORT_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

Result (for today):

Enum = SATURDAY
FULL = Saturday
FULL_STANDALONE = Saturday
NARROW = S
NARROW_STANDALONE = 6
SHORT = Sat
SHORT_STANDALONE = Sat

Answer 3

Java 8 datetime API made it so much easier :

LocalDate.now().getDayOfWeek().name()

Will return you the name of the day as String

Output : THURSDAY

Answer 4

Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)

or

new GregorianCalendar().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

Just the same as in Java, nothing particular to Android.

Answer 5

public String weekdays[] = new      DateFormatSymbols(Locale.ITALIAN).getWeekdays();
 Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
 Date date = new Date();
 c.setTime(date);
 int dayOfWeek = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);
 System.out.println(dayOfWeek);
 System.out.println(weekdays[dayOfWeek]);

Answer 6

If you do not want to use Calendar class at all you can use this

String weekday_name = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(System.currentTimeMillis());

i.e., result is,

"Sunday"

Answer 7

Here is my simple approach to get Current day

public String getCurrentDay(){

    String daysArray[] = {"Sunday","Monday","Tuesday", "Wednesday","Thursday","Friday", "Saturday"};

    Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    int day = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

    return daysArray[day];

}

Answer 8

you can use that code for Kotlin which you will use calendar class from java into Kotlin

    val day = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)

    fun dayOfWeek() {
    println("What day is it today?")
    val day = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)
    println( when (day) {
      1 -> "Sunday"
      2 -> "Monday"
      3 -> "Tuesday"
      4 -> "Wednesday"
      5 -> "Thursday"
      6 -> "Friday"
      7 -> "Saturday"
      else -> "Time has stopped"
   })
 }

Answer 9

Using both method you find easy if you wont last seven days you use (currentdaynumber+7-1)%7,(currentdaynumber+7-2)%7.....upto 6

public static String getDayName(int day){
    switch(day){
        case 0:
            return "Sunday";
        case 1:
            return "Monday";
        case 2:
            return "Tuesday";
        case 3:
            return "Wednesday";
        case 4:
            return "Thursday";
        case 5:
            return  "Friday";
        case 6:
            return "Saturday";
    }

    return "Worng Day";
}
public static String getCurrentDay(){
    SimpleDateFormat dayFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.US);
    Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    return dayFormat.format(calendar.getTime());

}

Answer 10

Just in case you ever want to do this not on Android it's helpful to think about which day where as not all devices mark their calendar in local time.

From Java 8 onwards:

LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("America/Detroit")).getDayOfWeek()

Answer 11

If you want to define the date string in strings.xml. You can do like below.
Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK return value from 1 -> 7 <=> Calendar.SUNDAY -> Calendar.SATURDAY

strings.xml

<string-array name="title_day_of_week">
    <item>日</item> <!-- sunday -->
    <item>月</item> <!-- monday -->
    <item>火</item>
    <item>水</item>
    <item>木</item>
    <item>金</item>
    <item>土</item> <!-- saturday -->
</string-array>

DateExtension.kt

fun String.getDayOfWeek(context: Context, format: String): String {
    val date = SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.getDefault()).parse(this)
    return date?.getDayOfWeek(context) ?: "unknown"
}

fun Date.getDayOfWeek(context: Context): String {
    val c = Calendar.getInstance().apply { time = this@getDayOfWeek }
    return context.resources.getStringArray(R.array.title_day_of_week)[c[Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK] - 1]
}

Using

// get current day
val currentDay = Date().getDayOfWeek(context)

// get specific day
val dayString = "2021-1-4"
val day = dayString.getDayOfWeek(context, "yyyy-MM-dd")

Answer 12

As DAY_OF_WEEK in GregorianCalender class is a static field you can access it directly as foolows

int dayOfWeek = GregorianCalender.DAY_OF_WEEK;