What is the easiest way to get the current day of the week in Android?

Question

The Java Calendar class works.

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
int day = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK); 

switch (day) {
    case Calendar.SUNDAY:
        // Current day is Sunday
        break;
    case Calendar.MONDAY:
        // Current day is Monday
        break;
    case Calendar.TUESDAY:
        // etc.
        break;
}

---

For much better datetime handling consider using the Java 8 time API:

String day = LocalDate.now().getDayOfWeek().name()

To use this below Android SDK 26 you'll need to enable Java 8 desugaring in build.gradle:

android {
  defaultConfig {
    // Required when setting minSdkVersion to 20 or lower
    multiDexEnabled true
  }

  compileOptions {
    // Flag to enable support for the new language APIs
    coreLibraryDesugaringEnabled true
    // Sets Java compatibility to Java 8
    sourceCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
    targetCompatibility JavaVersion.VERSION_1_8
  }
}

dependencies {
  coreLibraryDesugaring 'com.android.tools:desugar_jdk_libs:1.0.9'
}

More information on Android's Java 8 support: https://developer.android.com/studio/write/java8-support

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
Date date = calendar.getTime();
// 3 letter name form of the day
System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("EE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(date.getTime()));
// full name form of the day
System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(date.getTime()));

Result (for today):

Sat
Saturday

---

UPDATE: java8

LocalDate date = LocalDate.now();
DayOfWeek dow = date.getDayOfWeek();
System.out.println("Enum = " + dow);

String dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.FULL, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("FULL = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.FULL_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("FULL_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.NARROW, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("NARROW = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.NARROW_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("NARROW_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("SHORT = " + dayName);

dayName = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT_STANDALONE, Locale.ENGLISH);
System.out.println("SHORT_STANDALONE = " + dayName);

Result (for today):

Enum = SATURDAY
FULL = Saturday
FULL_STANDALONE = Saturday
NARROW = S
NARROW_STANDALONE = 6
SHORT = Sat
SHORT_STANDALONE = Sat

Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)

or

new GregorianCalendar().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

Just the same as in Java, nothing particular to Android.

Java 8 datetime API made it so much easier :

LocalDate.now().getDayOfWeek().name()

Will return you the name of the day as String

Output : THURSDAY