How do you format date and time in Android?

Question

How do you format correctly according to the device configuration a date and time when having year, month, day, hour and minute?

Answer 1

You can use DateFormat. Result depends on default Locale of the phone, but you can specify Locale too :

https://developer.android.com/reference/java/text/DateFormat.html

This is results on a

DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(date)                                          

FR Locale : 3 nov. 2017

US/En Locale : Jan 12, 1952

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DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT).format(date)

FR Locale : 03/11/2017

US/En Locale : 12.13.52

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DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM).format(date)

FR Locale : 3 nov. 2017

US/En Locale : Jan 12, 1952

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DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG).format(date)

FR Locale : 3 novembre 2017

US/En Locale : January 12, 1952

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DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.FULL).format(date)

FR Locale : vendredi 3 novembre 2017

US/En Locale : Tuesday, April 12, 1952

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DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance().format(date)

FR Locale : 3 nov. 2017 16:04:58

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DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, DateFormat.SHORT).format(date)

FR Locale : 03/11/2017 16:04

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DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, DateFormat.MEDIUM).format(date)

FR Locale : 03/11/2017 16:04:58

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DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, DateFormat.LONG).format(date)

FR Locale : 03/11/2017 16:04:58 GMT+01:00

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DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, DateFormat.FULL).format(date)

FR Locale : 03/11/2017 16:04:58 heure normale d’Europe centrale

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DateFormat.getTimeInstance().format(date)

FR Locale : 16:04:58

---

DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT).format(date)

FR Locale : 16:04

---

DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM).format(date)

FR Locale : 16:04:58

---

DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG).format(date)

FR Locale : 16:04:58 GMT+01:00

---

DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL).format(date)

FR Locale : 16:04:58 heure normale d’Europe centrale

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Answer 2

Use build in Time class!

Time time = new Time();
time.set(0, 0, 17, 4, 5, 1999);
Log.i("DateTime", time.format("%d.%m.%Y %H:%M:%S"));

Answer 3

The android Time class provides 3 formatting methods http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/format/Time.html

This is how I did it:

/**
* This method will format the data from the android Time class (eg. myTime.setToNow())   into the format
* Date: dd.mm.yy Time: hh.mm.ss
*/
private String formatTime(String time)
{
    String fullTime= "";
    String[] sa = new String[2];

    if(time.length()>1)
    {
        Time t = new Time(Time.getCurrentTimezone());
        t.parse(time);
        // or t.setToNow();
        String formattedTime = t.format("%d.%m.%Y %H.%M.%S");
        int x = 0;

        for(String s : formattedTime.split("\\s",2))
        {   
            System.out.println("Value = " + s);
            sa[x] = s;
            x++;
        }
        fullTime = "Date: " + sa[0] + " Time: " + sa[1];
    }
    else{
        fullTime = "No time data";
    }
    return fullTime;
}

I hope thats helpful :-)