Android: how to get the current day of the week (Monday, etc...) in the user's language?

Question

Use SimpleDateFormat to format dates and times into a human-readable string, with respect to the users locale.

Small example to get the current day of the week (e.g. "Monday"):

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
Date d = new Date();
String dayOfTheWeek = sdf.format(d);

Try this:

int dayOfWeek = date.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);  
String weekday = new DateFormatSymbols().getShortWeekdays()[dayOfWeek];

I know already answered but who looking for 'Fri' like this

for Fri -

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE");
Date d = new Date();
String dayOfTheWeek = sdf.format(d);

and who wants full date string they can use 4E for Friday

For Friday-

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
Date d = new Date();
String dayOfTheWeek = sdf.format(d);

Enjoy...

To make things shorter You can use this:

android.text.format.DateFormat.format("EEEE", date);

which will return day of the week as a String.

Hers's what I used to get the day names (0-6 means monday - sunday):

public static String getFullDayName(int day) {
    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    // date doesn't matter - it has to be a Monday
    // I new that first August 2011 is one ;-)
    c.set(2011, 7, 1, 0, 0, 0);
    c.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, day);
    return String.format("%tA", c);
}

public static String getShortDayName(int day) {
    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    c.set(2011, 7, 1, 0, 0, 0);
    c.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, day);
    return String.format("%ta", c);
}

tl;dr

String output = 
    LocalDate.now( ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) )
             .getDayOfWeek()
             .getDisplayName( TextStyle.FULL , Locale.CANADA_FRENCH ) ;

java.time

The java.time classes built into Java 8 and later and back-ported to Java 6 & 7 and to Android include the handy DayOfWeek enum.

The days are numbered according to the standard ISO 8601 definition, 1-7 for Monday-Sunday.

DayOfWeek dow = DayOfWeek.of( 1 );

This enum includes the getDisplayName method to generate a String of the localized translated name of the day.

The Locale object specifies a human language to be used in translation, and specifies cultural norms to decide issues such as capitalization and punctuation.

String output = DayOfWeek.MONDAY.getDisplayName( TextStyle.FULL , Locale.CANADA_FRENCH ) ;

To get today’s date, use the LocalDate class. Note that a time zone is crucial as for any given moment the date varies around the globe.

ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z );
DayOfWeek dow = today.getDayOfWeek();
String output = dow.getDisplayName( TextStyle.FULL , Locale.CANADA_FRENCH ) ;

Keep in mind that the locale has nothing to do with the time zone.two separate distinct orthogonal issues. You might want a French presentation of a date-time zoned in India (Asia/Kolkata).

Joda-Time

UPDATE: The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.

The Joda-Time library provides Locale-driven localization of date-time values.

DateTimeZone zone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Montreal" );
DateTime now = DateTime.now( zone );

Locale locale = Locale.CANADA_FRENCH;
DateTimeFormatter formatterUnJourQuébécois = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "EEEE" ).withLocale( locale );

String output = formatterUnJourQuébécois.print( now );

System.out.println("output: " + output );

output: samedi

---

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.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

• Java SE 8 and SE 9 and later
  • Built-in.
  • Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
  • Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
• Java SE 6 and SE 7
  • Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
• Android
  • The ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above) for Android specifically.
  • See How to use ThreeTenABP….

Try this...

//global declaration
private TextView timeUpdate;
Calendar calendar;

.......

timeUpdate = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.timeUpdate); //initialize in onCreate()

.......

//in onStart()
calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
//date format is:  "Date-Month-Year Hour:Minutes am/pm"
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm a"); //Date and time
String currentDate = sdf.format(calendar.getTime());

//Day of Name in full form like,"Saturday", or if you need the first three characters you have to put "EEE" in the date format and your result will be "Sat".
SimpleDateFormat sdf_ = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE"); 
Date date = new Date();
String dayName = sdf_.format(date);
timeUpdate.setText("" + dayName + " " + currentDate + "");

The result is...