CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javadateformatjava.util.date
Geek
Geek

Reputation: 3329

Convert SQL date to Java.util.date

My requirement is to return the dueDate field as a date to the calling service.

The back end code returns the date in mm/dd/yy. When I map those fields to the Java code, my object contains the date field of type java.sql.Date.

The field that is defined in the object is (note it's the pseudo): 

import java.sql.Date;

private Date dueDate;

/**
 * @return the dueDate
 */
public Date getDueDate() {
    return dueDate;
}

/**
 * @param DueDate the DueDate to set
 */
public void setDueDate(Date dueDate) {
    this.dueDate = dueDate;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
    builder.append("DueDetails [dueAmount=").append(dueAmount).append(", dueDate=").append(dueDate)
            .append("]");       
    return builder.toString();
}

When I print the object, the Date field comes in this form:

dueDate=Thu Oct 25 20:00:00 EDT 2018
dueDate=Thu Aug 02 20:00:00 EDT 2018

When I query from backend, it shows me the proper format (mm/dd/yy), which I should return to the calling service.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 6138

Answers (2)

Basil Bourque
Basil Bourque

Reputation: 338584

java.util.Date vs java.sql.Date

Your output looks to be coming from a java.util.Date rather than a java.sql.Date.

It is unfortunately easy to mixup the two. Besides the Date name, the sql one technically is a subclass of the other util one. Beware: This is a hack, and a bad hack at that. The documentation warns us to pretend the two are not in an inheritance relationship. But the compiler does not know that.

Here is some example code showing these two classes and the different behavior of their respective toString method.

// Legacy classes
System.out.println( "java.sql.Date: " + new java.sql.Date( Instant.now().toEpochMilli() ) ) ;
System.out.println( "java.util.Date: " + new java.util.Date() ) ;

See this code run live at IdeOne.com.

java.sql.Date: 2018-07-31

java.util.Date: Tue Jul 31 22:44:14 GMT 2018

You can see the java.sql.Date::toString method uses the shorter YYYY-MM-DD format used in SQL environments. That format also happens to comply with ISO 8601 standard as well, by the way.

In contrast, the output you report matches that of java.util.Date::toString.

java.time

The issue is moot. You are using terrible old date-time classes that were supplanted years ago by the java.time classes.

  • java.sql.Date is replaced by java.time.LocalDate, a date-only only value without a time-of-day and without a time zone. (FYI, java.sql.Date pretends to have no time-of-day or time zone but actually has both, as an awkward subclass of java.util.Date.)
  • java.util.Date is replaced by java.time.Instant. Both represent a moment in UTC, though Instant has a finer resolution of nanoseconds instead of milliseconds. (FYI, java.util.Date actually has a time zone buried deep, inaccessible without getter/setter methods, but used in equals etc. One of many poor design decisions in these legacy classes.)

Here is some code, counterparts to that seen above. 

// Modern classes
System.out.println( "LocalDate.now(): " + LocalDate.now() ;
System.out.println( "Instant.now(): " + Instant.now() ) ;
System.out.println( "ZonedDateTime.now( … ): " + ZonedDateTime.now( ZoneId.of( "Africa/Tunis" ) ) ) ;

See this code run live at IdeOne.com.

LocalDate.now(): 2018-07-31

Instant.now(): 2018-07-31T22:57:27.763Z

ZonedDateTime.now( … ): 2018-07-31T23:57:27.904+01:00[Africa/Tunis]

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.

You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.

Upvotes: 2

Martín Zaragoza
Martín Zaragoza

Reputation: 1817

check this

//converting java.util.Date to java.sql.Date in Java
java.sql.Date sqlDate = new java.sql.Date(now.getTime());
System.out.println("Converted value of java.sql.Date : " + sqlDate);

//converting java.sql.Date to java.util.Date back
java.util.Date utilDate = new java.util.Date(sqlDate.getTime());
System.out.println("Converted value of java.util.Date : " + utilDate);

from this link: http://www.java67.com/2012/12/how-to-convert-sql-date-to-util-date.html

Then you can use SimpleDateFormat to format the date as you like:

DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
String strdate = simpleDateFormat.format(myJavaDate);
System.out.println(strdate);

Upvotes: 4

Related Questions