CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaandroid
Micro
Micro

Reputation: 10891

Convert string to a formatted date in Android

In my Java Cloud Endpoints API I have some code to get the current date and then store that date in my Cloud SQL (MySQL) database:

Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
String formattedDate = df.format(c.getTime());
//formattedDate is then inserted into the database

Later on in my Android Activity I query the database and get the date back as a String that looks like: 

2015-06-24 17:53:01

Now I want to format this date to display it like 06/24/2015 on the UI of my Activity. To accomplish this I do the following:

//I get a string like 2015-06-24 17:53:01 passed in from another activity
//which in-turn got it from the MySQL database
datetime = getIntent().getExtras().getString("datetime");

//first convert the string datatime to a date object
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
Date convertedDate = new Date();
try {
    convertedDate = dateFormat.parse(datetime);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

//then format that date object the way you want
SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
String formattedDate = df.format(convertedDate);

//set the TextView in my Activity to display 06/24/2015
myDateTextView.setText(formattedDate);

This works. But man is it a convoluted way to do something simple. I am wondering if there is a more efficient way to do this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1658

Answers (3)

5er
5er

Reputation: 2695

You should save long value represented date into DB.

long l = c.getTimeInMillis()

and this value you should save.

answer on your question below:

    Date date=new Date(l);
    SimpleDateFormat df2 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
    String dateText = df2.format(date);
    System.out.println(dateText);

Upvotes: 3

void
void

Reputation: 207

If you can change the source code of insertion into database, try inserting the timestamp in Long. Then conversion of timestamp to date format should be straight forward.

in Android,

final String data = DateFormat.format("MM/dd/yyyy",timestamp);

Upvotes: 0

Gustavo Morales
Gustavo Morales

Reputation: 2670

The simplest way is to store date in long value at DB, after that you can format to string in a very simple way.

DateFormat.format("MMM dd, yyyy", milliseconds).toString();

Upvotes: 1

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