Converting Epoch time to date string

Question

I have seen this question asked multiple times and none of the answers seem to be what i need.

I have a long type variable which has an epoch time stored in it.

What i want to do is convert it to a String

for example if the epoch time stored was for today the final string would read:

17/03/2012

How would i to this?

Answer 1

Look into SimpleDateFormat

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
sdf.format(new Date(myTimeAsLong));

Answer 2

You'd create a Date from the long - that's easy:

Date date = new Date(epochTime);

Note that epochTime here ought to be in milliseconds since the epoch - if you've got seconds since the epoch, multiply by 1000.

Then you'd create a SimpleDateFormat specifying the relevant pattern, culture and time zone. For example:

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy", Locale.US);
format.setTimeZone(...);

Then use that to format the date to a string:

String text = format.format(date);

Answer 3

Date date = new Date(String); 

this is deprecated.

solution

  Date date = new Date(1406178443 * 1000L);
  DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS");
  format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Etc/UTC"));
  String formatted = format.format(date);

make sure multiply by 1000L

Answer 4

If the method should be portable, better use the default (local time) TimeZone.getDefault():

String epochToIso8601(long time) {
    String format = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss";
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.getDefault());
    sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());
    return sdf.format(new Date(time * 1000));
}