Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java

In this post, we will see how to Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java.

There are multiple ways to format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java. Let’s go through them.
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Using DateTimeFormatter with LocalDate (Java 8)

To Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java:

• Create a LocalDateTime object.
• Use DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern() to specify the pattern yyyy-MM-dd
• Call format() method on DateTimeFormatter and pass LocalDateTime object
• Get result in String with date format yyyy-mm-dd.

Let’s see with the help of example:

package org.arpit.java2blog;

import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.util.Locale;

public class FormatLocalDate {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.now();
        String formattedDateStr = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd", Locale.ENGLISH)
                                  .format(ldt);
        System.out.println("Formatted Date in String format: "+formattedDateStr);
    }
}

Output:

Using SimpleDateFormat

To Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java:

• Create Date object
• Create SimpleDateFormat with pattern yyyy-MM-dd
• Call format() method on SimpleDateFormat and pass Date object
• Get result in String with date format yyyy-mm-dd.

package org.arpit.java2blog;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class FormatUsingSimpleDateFormat {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Date date = new Date();
        System.out.println("Original Date: "+date);

        // Specify format as "yyyy-MM-dd"
        SimpleDateFormat dmyFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

        // Use format method on SimpleDateFormat
        String formattedDateStr = dmyFormat.format(date);
        System.out.println("Formatted Date in String format: "+formattedDateStr);
    }
}

Output:

Using Calendar class

To Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java:

• Use Calendar's setTime() method to set current date
• Use calendar class to get day, month and year using Calendar.get() methods.
• Create format yyyy-MM-dd using String concatenation.

This is not a recommended approach as it does not specify format explicitly and is more error prone.

Let’s see with the help of example:

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;

public class FormatWithCalendar {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Date date = new Date();
        Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar();
        calendar.setTime(date);
        int day   = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
        int month = calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1; // {0 - 11}
        int year  = calendar    .get(Calendar.YEAR);

        String yyyymmddFormat = (year)+"-"+((month<10)?"0"+month:month) + "-" + ((day<10)?"0"+day:day);
        System.out.println("Formatted Date in yyyy-MM-dd format: " + yyyymmddFormat);
    }
}

Output:

Note that we have added 1 after getting month using calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH) because it returns month from 0 to 11. 0 denotes January and 11 denotes December.

That's all about how to Format Date to yyyy-MM-dd in java.