Java LocalDate class

java.time.LocalDate class, introduced in Java 8, represents a local date without timezone and time of that day e.g. 2019-03-27. It has the time portion as the moment of the day starts i.e. minutes and seconds are considered zero.

We can use the LocalDate instances where we need to represent a day without specific time of the day – such as birthday, holiday or leaves taken by an employee.

The primary difference between a java.util.Date and java.time.LocalDate is that LocalDate instances are immutable and thread-safe.

1. Class declaration

public final class LocalDate
	extends Object
	implements Temporal, TemporalAdjuster, ChronoLocalDate, Serializable
{
	//class body
}

2. How to create LocalDate

Generally, we will be creating local date instances in two conditions i.e. get current date or create local date for a specified day.

2.1. Get current local date

Use following methods to get the current local date.

LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();	//1 - Recommended

LocalDate today = LocalDate.ofInstant(Instant.now(), ZoneId.systemDefault());	//

2.2. Create specified local date

To create a local date with specific day, month and year – use below methods.

LocalDate dateInstance = LocalDate.of(2019, 3, 27);

LocalDate dateInstance = LocalDate.parse("2019-03-27");

3. How to parse string to LocalDate

The LocalDate class has two overloaded parse() methods to convert string date to local date instance.

parse(CharSequence text)	//1

parse(CharSequence text, DateTimeFormatter formatter)	//2

• Use first method if the string contains date in ISO_LOCAL_DATE pattern i.e. yyyy-MM-dd. This is default pattern of local dates in Java.
• For any other date pattern, we need to use second method where we pass the date string as well as a formatter which represents the pattern if that date string.

//1 - default date pattern
String date = "2019-03-23";
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.parse(date);

//2 - specific date pattern
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d-MMM-yyyy");
String date = "23-Mar-2019";
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.parse(date, formatter);

4. How to format LocalDate to string

Use LocalDate.format(DateTimeFormatter) method to format a local date to a desired string representation.

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d-MMM-yyyy");

LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();

String dateString = today.format(formatter);	//23-Mar-2019

5. How to modify local dates

LocalDate provides below methods which can be used to get to new local date instance relative to available local date object.

• plusDays()
• plusWeeks()
• plusMonths()
• plusYears()
• minusDays()
• minusWeeks()
• minusMonths()
• minusYears()

LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();

//Same date 3 years later
LocalDate localDate1 = today.plusYears(3);	

//local date before 3 months
LocalDate localDate2 = today.minusMonths(3);

6. Java LocalDate examples

Let’s get better understanding about LocalDate class using some examples.

• Parse String to LocalDate in Java
• Format LocalDate to String in Java
• Convert LocalDate to java.util.Date in Java
• Convert Date to LocalDate in Java
• Convert LocalDate to java.sql.Date in Java
• Convert LocalDate to ZonedDateTime in Java
• Convert LocalDate to LocalDateTime in Java

Happy Learning !!

Ref : LocalDate Java Doc