Java 8 DateTimeFormatter Example

Java examples to use DateTimeFormatter for formatting ZonedDateTime, LocalDateTime, LocalDate and LocalTime to string with predefined and custom patterns.

1. Create DateTimeFormatter

You can create DateTimeFormatter in two ways:

Use inbuilt constants
Create your own patterns using ofPattern() method

//Use inbuilt pattern constants
DateTimeFormatter inBuiltFormatter1 = DateTimeFormatter.ISO_DATE_TIME;

DateTimeFormatter inBuiltFormatter2 = DateTimeFormatter.ISO_LOCAL_DATE_TIME;

//Define your own custom patterns
DateTimeFormatter customFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/yyyy 'at' hh:mma z");

2. Format ZonedDateTime

Java example to format ZonedDateTime to string with DateTimeFormatter.

//Create formatter
DateTimeFormatter FOMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/yyyy 'at' hh:mm a z");

//Zoned datetime instance
ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.now();

//Get formatted String
String zdtString = FOMATTER.format(zdt);

System.out.println(zdtString);		// 07/15/2018 at 02:51 PM IST

3. Format LocalDateTime

LocalDate does not have timezone part. So create the pattern accordingly.

//Create formatter
DateTimeFormatter FOMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/yyyy 'at' hh:mm a");

//Local date time instance
LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();

//Get formatted String
String ldtString = FOMATTER.format(localDateTime);

System.out.println(ldtString);		// 07/15/2018 at 02:49 PM

4. Format LocalDate

LocalDate does not have time and timezone parts. So create the pattern accordingly.

//Create formatter
DateTimeFormatter FOMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/yyyy");
		
//Local date instance
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();

//Get formatted String
String dateString = FOMATTER.format(localDate);

System.out.println(dateString);		//07/15/2018

5. Format LocalTime

LocalTime does not have date and timezone parts. So create the pattern accordingly.

//Create formatter
DateTimeFormatter FOMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("hh:mm a");

//Local time instance
LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();

//Get formatted String
String localTimeString = FOMATTER.format(localTime);

System.out.println(localTimeString);		// 02:53 PM

6. Useful formatting patterns

Pattern	Example
`yyyy-MM-dd` (ISO)	“2018-07-14”
`dd-MMM-yyyy`	“14-Jul-2018”
`dd/MM/yyyy`	“14/07/2018”
`E, MMM dd yyyy`	“Sat, Jul 14 2018”
`h:mm a`	“12:08 PM”
`EEEE, MMM dd, yyyy HH:mm:ss a`	“Saturday, Jul 14, 2018 14:31:06 PM”
`yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ`	“2018-07-14T14:31:30+0530”
`hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz`	“12 o’clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time”
`K:mm a, z`	“0:08 PM, PDT”

Happy Learning !!

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