Java: Convert String Date to Month Name Year (MMM yyyy) [duplicate]

Question

I am new to Java. I am trying to convert date from string to MMM yyyy format (Mar 2016). I tried this

Calendar cal=Calendar.getInstance();
SimpleDateFormat month_date = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM yyyy");
String month_name = month_date.format(cal.getTime());
System.out.println("Month :: " + month_name);  //Mar 2016

It is working fine. But when I use

String actualDate = "2016-03-20";

It is not working. Help me, how to solve this.

Answer 1

tl;dr

YearMonth.from( 
    LocalDate.parse( "2016-03-20" )
) 
.format(
    DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( 
        "MMM uuuu" , 
        Locale.US 
    )
)

Mar 2016

java.time

Avoid the troublesome old date-time classes. Entirely supplanted by the java.time classes.

YearMonth

Java has a class to represent a year and month. Oddly named, YearMonth.

LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse( "2016-03-20" ) ;
YearMonth ym = YearMonth.from( ld ) ;

Define a formatting pattern for your desired output.

Specify a Locale. A Locale determines (a) the human language for translation of name of day, name of month, and such, and (b) the cultural norms deciding issues of abbreviation, capitalization, punctuation, separators, and such.

DateTimeFormatter f = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "MMM uuuu" , Locale.US ) ;
String output = ym.format( f ) ;

Mar 2016

You could use that formatter on the LocalDate. But I assume you may have further need of the year-month as a concept, and so the YearMonth class may be useful.

---

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?

• Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, 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 Java SE 7
  • Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
• Android
  • Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
  • For earlier Android (<26), the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). See How to use ThreeTenABP….

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.

Answer 2

Your format must match your input

for 2016-03-20

the format should be (just use a second SimpleDateFormat object)

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

---

Full answer

SimpleDateFormat month_date = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

String actualDate = "2016-03-20";

Date date = sdf.parse(actualDate);

String month_name = month_date.format(date);
System.out.println("Month :" + month_name);  //Mar 2016

---

Using java.time java-8

String actualDate = "2016-03-20";
DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd", Locale.ENGLISH);
DateTimeFormatter dtf2 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMM yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
DateTimeFormatter dtf3 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMMM yyyy", Locale.ENGLISH);
LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse(actualDate, dtf);
String month_name = dtf2.format(ld);
System.out.println(month_name); // Mar 2016
String fullMonthAndYear = dtf3.format(ld);
System.out.println(fullMonthAndYear); // March 2016

Answer 3

Try this code:

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMMM HH:mm a");
Date date = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
String infi = df.format(date);

And the output should be:

11-May 4:47 PM