Thread: how to get each field of a current date

i want to extract the MONTH, YEAR and DAY of a current date

i dont have problems with getting the current date..

but my problem is how to extract each field of that date

example:
this code displays the current time

GregorianCalendar gCal = new GregorianCalendar();
 
System.out.println(gCal.getTime());

what i want is to extract each day for comparing...

i need this algorithm for my program that TESTS(compares) the current date to a GIVEN expiration Date

pseudocode:

if this year is less than the expiration year
notify the user about the year
 
if this month is 6 months less than the expiration month
notify the user about the month
 
if this day is 206 days less than the expiration day
notify the user about the day

i need some help here while im searching for a method that can do this job... tnx in advance!!!

Have a look at the link under and I'm sure you'll find what you need. 8)

Date (Java 2 Platform SE v1.4.2)

most of the methods of the date class is deprecated... i dont know whats the purpose of that..
but is it still safe to use those methods?

public class ExpirationDate {
 
    // the object for the instance of the date
    private GregorianCalendar gCal;
 
    // format for the full display of the given expiration date
    private SimpleDateFormat fullExpirationDate;
 
    // numerical format for the given expiration year
    private SimpleDateFormat yearInteger;
 
    // numerical format for the given expiration month
    private SimpleDateFormat monthInteger;
 
    // short string format of the given expiration month
    private SimpleDateFormat monthShortString;
 
    // full string format of the given expiration month
    private SimpleDateFormat monthFullString;
 
    // numerical format of the given expiration day in year
    private SimpleDateFormat dayInYearInteger;
 
    // numerical format of the given expiration day in month
    private SimpleDateFormat dayInMonthInteger;
 
    // short string format of the given expiration day in week
    private SimpleDateFormat dayInWeekShortString;
 
    // full string format of the given expiration day in week
    private SimpleDateFormat dayInWeekFullString;
 
    protected ExpirationDate() {
 
        yearInteger = new SimpleDateFormat("yy");
        monthInteger = new SimpleDateFormat("MM");
        monthShortString = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM");
        monthFullString = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMMM");
        dayInYearInteger = new SimpleDateFormat("DDD");
        dayInMonthInteger = new SimpleDateFormat("dd");
        dayInWeekShortString = new SimpleDateFormat("E");
        dayInWeekFullString = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns a full value of the given expiration date.
     * 
     * @return a full value of this expiration date
     */
    public ExpirationDate getFullExpirationDate() {
 
        ExpirationDate eD = new ExpirationDate();
 
        eD.setExpirationDate(Integer.parseInt(this.getExpirationYearInNumber()),
                             Integer.parseInt(this.getExpirationMonthInNumber()),
                             Integer.parseInt(this.getExpirationDayInMonthInDigits()));
 
        return eD;
    }
 
    /**
     * @return the full string format of the given expiration date
     */
    public String toString() {
 
        return this.getExpirationMonthFullString() + ", " + this.getExpirationDayInMonthInDigits() + ", " +
               this.getExpirationYearInNumber() + " - " + this.getExpirationDayInWeekFullString();
    }
 
    public void setExpirationDate(int year, int month, int day) {
 
 
        gCal = new GregorianCalendar(year, month - 1, day);
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the year format of the given year, the return value of this
     * SimpleDateFormat object is only the last two digits of the given year,
     * so there is an additional first 2 digits to represent a full string
     * representation of a given year.
     * 
     * @return the given expiration year 
     */
    public String getExpirationYearInNumber() {
 
        return "20" + yearInteger.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the numerical representaion of the given expiration month.
     * 
     * @return the given expiration month in two digits
     */
    public String getExpirationMonthInNumber() {
 
        return monthInteger.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns a short string representaion of the given expiration month.
     *
     * Example: October -->> oct
     * 
     * @return a short strin representaion of the given expiration month
     */
    public String getExpirationMonthShortString() {
 
        return monthShortString.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the full string representation of the given expiration month.
     * 
     * @return the full representaion of the given expiration month
     */
    public String getExpirationMonthFullString() {
 
        return monthFullString.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the expiration day in year in numerical format.
     * 
     * @return the numerical representation of the expiration day in year in
     *         3 digits
     */
    public String getExpirationDayInYearInNumber() {
 
        return dayInYearInteger.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the expiration day in month in numerical format.
     * 
     * @return the numerical representaion of the expiration day in month
     */
    public String getExpirationDayInMonthInDigits() {
 
        return dayInMonthInteger.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the expiration day in week in a short string representation
     *
     * Example: Saturday -->> sat
     * 
     * @return a short string representaion of the expiration day in week
     */
    public String getExpirationDayInWeekShortString() {
 
        return dayInWeekShortString.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    /**
     * Returns the full string representation of the expiration day in week.
     * 
     * @return the full string representation of the expiration day in week
     */
    public String getExpirationDayInWeekFullString() {
 
        return dayInWeekFullString.format(gCal.getTime());
    }
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        ExpirationDate eD = new ExpirationDate();
 
        eD.setExpirationDate(10, 1, 24);  // error part
 
        System.out.println(eD.getExpirationDayInWeekShortString());
    }
}

output is Fri... it supposed to be sunday.. in my timezone this date is for sunday jan, 24, 2010

fri

10, 1, 24, should be sunday,, not friday
please help me with this....

You have to love Joda Time - Java date and time API - Home though

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