Top Description Fields Constructors Methods
java.util

public Class Date

extends Object
implements Serializable, Cloneable, Comparable<Date>
Class Inheritance
All Implemented Interfaces
java.lang.Comparable, java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
Imports
java.text.DateFormat, java.io.IOException, .ObjectOutputStream, .ObjectInputStream, java.time.Instant, sun.util.calendar.BaseCalendar, .CalendarSystem, .CalendarUtils, .ZoneInfo
The class Date represents a specific instant in time, with millisecond precision.

Prior to JDK 1.1, the class Date had two additional functions. It allowed the interpretation of dates as year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values. It also allowed the formatting and parsing of date strings. Unfortunately, the API for these functions was not amenable to internationalization. As of JDK 1.1, the Calendar class should be used to convert between dates and time fields and the DateFormat class should be used to format and parse date strings. The corresponding methods in Date are deprecated.

Although the Date class is intended to reflect coordinated universal time (UTC), it may not do so exactly, depending on the host environment of the Java Virtual Machine. Nearly all modern operating systems assume that 1 day = 24 × 60 × 60 = 86400 seconds in all cases. In UTC, however, about once every year or two there is an extra second, called a "leap second." The leap second is always added as the last second of the day, and always on December 31 or June 30. For example, the last minute of the year 1995 was 61 seconds long, thanks to an added leap second. Most computer clocks are not accurate enough to be able to reflect the leap-second distinction.

Some computer standards are defined in terms of Greenwich mean time (GMT), which is equivalent to universal time (UT). GMT is the "civil" name for the standard; UT is the "scientific" name for the same standard. The distinction between UTC and UT is that UTC is based on an atomic clock and UT is based on astronomical observations, which for all practical purposes is an invisibly fine hair to split. Because the earth's rotation is not uniform (it slows down and speeds up in complicated ways), UT does not always flow uniformly. Leap seconds are introduced as needed into UTC so as to keep UTC within 0.9 seconds of UT1, which is a version of UT with certain corrections applied. There are other time and date systems as well; for example, the time scale used by the satellite-based global positioning system (GPS) is synchronized to UTC but is not adjusted for leap seconds. An interesting source of further information is the United States Naval Observatory (USNO): 

    https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO

and the material regarding "Systems of Time" at: 

    https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/time/master-clock/systems-of-time

which has descriptions of various different time systems including UT, UT1, and UTC.

In all methods of class Date that accept or return year, month, date, hours, minutes, and seconds values, the following representations are used:

In all cases, arguments given to methods for these purposes need not fall within the indicated ranges; for example, a date may be specified as January 32 and is interpreted as meaning February 1.

Authors
James Gosling, Arthur van Hoff, Alan Liu
Since
1.0
See Also
java.text.DateFormat, java.util.Calendar, java.util.TimeZone

Field Summary

Modifier and TypeField and Description
private transient BaseCalendar.Date
cdate

private static int
defaultCenturyStart

private transient long
fastTime

private static final BaseCalendar
gcal

private static BaseCalendar
jcal

private static final long
serialVersionUID

private static final int[]
ttb

private static final String[]
wtb

Constructor Summary

AccessConstructor and Description
public
Date()

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the time at which it was allocated, measured to the nearest millisecond.

public
Date(long
the milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.
date)

Allocates a Date object and initializes it to represent the specified number of milliseconds since the standard base time known as "the epoch", namely January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.

public
Date(int
the year minus 1900.
year, int
the month between 0-11.
month, int
the day of the month between 1-31.
date)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents midnight, local time, at the beginning of the day specified by the year, month, and date arguments.

public
Date(int
the year minus 1900.
year, int
the month between 0-11.
month, int
the day of the month between 1-31.
date, int
the hours between 0-23.
hrs, int
the minutes between 0-59.
min)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the instant at the start of the minute specified by the year, month, date, hrs, and min arguments, in the local time zone.

public
Date(int
the year minus 1900.
year, int
the month between 0-11.
month, int
the day of the month between 1-31.
date, int
the hours between 0-23.
hrs, int
the minutes between 0-59.
min, int
the seconds between 0-59.
sec)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the instant at the start of the second specified by the year, month, date, hrs, min, and sec arguments, in the local time zone.

public
Date(String
a string representation of the date.
s)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.parse(String s).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the date and time indicated by the string s, which is interpreted as if by the Date#parse method.

Method Summary

Modifier and TypeMethod and Description
public boolean

Returns:

true if and only if the instant represented by this Date object is strictly later than the instant represented by when; false otherwise.
after(Date
a date.
when)

Tests if this date is after the specified date.

public boolean

Returns:

true if and only if the instant of time represented by this Date object is strictly earlier than the instant represented by when; false otherwise.
before(Date
a date.
when)

Tests if this date is before the specified date.

public Object
clone()

Overrides java.lang.Object.clone.

Return a copy of this object.

public int

Returns:

the value 0 if the argument Date is equal to this Date; a value less than 0 if this Date is before the Date argument; and a value greater than 0 if this Date is after the Date argument.
compareTo(Date
the Date to be compared.
anotherDate)

Implements java.lang.Comparable.compareTo.

Compares two Dates for ordering.

private static final StringBuilder
convertToAbbr(StringBuilder sb, String name)

Converts the given name to its 3-letter abbreviation (e.g., "monday" -> "Mon") and stored the abbreviation in the given StringBuilder.

public boolean

Returns:

true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.
equals(Object
the object to compare with.
obj)

Overrides java.lang.Object.equals.

Compares two dates for equality.

public static Date

Returns:

a Date representing the same point on the time-line as the provided instant
from(Instant
the instant to convert
instant)

Obtains an instance of Date from an Instant object.

private final BaseCalendar.Date
getCalendarDate()

private static final BaseCalendar

Returns:

the CalendarSystem to use for the specified date
getCalendarSystem(int
normalized calendar year (not -1900)
year)

Returns the Gregorian or Julian calendar system to use with the given date.

private static final BaseCalendar
getCalendarSystem(long utc)

private static final BaseCalendar
getCalendarSystem(BaseCalendar.Date cdate)

public int

Returns:

the day of the month represented by this date.
getDate()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH).

Returns the day of the month represented by this Date object.

public int

Returns:

the day of the week represented by this date.
getDay()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK).

Returns the day of the week represented by this date.

public int

Returns:

the hour represented by this date.
getHours()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY).

Returns the hour represented by this Date object.

private static final synchronized BaseCalendar
getJulianCalendar()

pack-priv static final long
getMillisOf(Date date)

Returns the millisecond value of this Date object without affecting its internal state.

public int

Returns:

the number of minutes past the hour represented by this date.
getMinutes()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE).

Returns the number of minutes past the hour represented by this date, as interpreted in the local time zone.

public int

Returns:

the month represented by this date.
getMonth()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH).

Returns a number representing the month that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object.

public int

Returns:

the number of seconds past the minute represented by this date.
getSeconds()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND).

Returns the number of seconds past the minute represented by this date.

public long

Returns:

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this date.
getTime()

Returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this Date object.

private final long
getTimeImpl()

public int

Returns:

the time-zone offset, in minutes, for the current time zone.
getTimezoneOffset()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by -(Calendar.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET) + Calendar.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET)) / (60 * 1000).

Returns the offset, measured in minutes, for the local time zone relative to UTC that is appropriate for the time represented by this Date object.

public int

Returns:

the year represented by this date, minus 1900.
getYear()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) - 1900.

Returns a value that is the result of subtracting 1900 from the year that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object, as interpreted in the local time zone.

public int

Returns:

a hash code value for this object.
hashCode()

Overrides java.lang.Object.hashCode.

Returns a hash code value for this object.

private final BaseCalendar.Date
normalize()

private final BaseCalendar.Date
normalize(BaseCalendar.Date date)

public static long

Returns:

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by the string argument.
parse(String
a string to be parsed as a date.
s)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.parse(String s).

Attempts to interpret the string s as a representation of a date and time.

private void
readObject(ObjectInputStream s)

Reconstitute this object from a stream (i.e., deserialize it).

public void
setDate(int
the day of the month value between 1-31.
date)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, int date).

Sets the day of the month of this Date object to the specified value.

public void
setHours(int
the hour value.
hours)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, int hours).

Sets the hour of this Date object to the specified value.

public void
setMinutes(int
the value of the minutes.
minutes)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, int minutes).

Sets the minutes of this Date object to the specified value.

public void
setMonth(int
the month value between 0-11.
month)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.MONTH, int month).

Sets the month of this date to the specified value.

public void
setSeconds(int
the seconds value.
seconds)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, int seconds).

Sets the seconds of this Date to the specified value.

public void
setTime(long
the number of milliseconds.
time)

Sets this Date object to represent a point in time that is time milliseconds after January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT.

public void
setYear(int
the year value.
year)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.YEAR, year + 1900).

Sets the year of this Date object to be the specified value plus 1900.

public String

Returns:

a string representation of this date, using the Internet GMT conventions.
toGMTString()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.format(Date date), using a GMT TimeZone.

Creates a string representation of this Date object of the form: 

d mon yyyy hh:mm:ss GMT
public Instant

Returns:

an instant representing the same point on the time-line as this Date object
toInstant()

Converts this Date object to an Instant.

public String

Returns:

a string representation of this date, using the locale conventions.
toLocaleString()
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.format(Date date).

Creates a string representation of this Date object in an implementation-dependent form.

public String

Returns:

a string representation of this date.
toString()

Overrides java.lang.Object.toString.

Converts this Date object to a String of the form: 

dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy
public static long

Returns:

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT for the date and time specified by the arguments.
UTC(int
the year minus 1900.
year, int
the month between 0-11.
month, int
the day of the month between 1-31.
date, int
the hours between 0-23.
hrs, int
the minutes between 0-59.
min, int
the seconds between 0-59.
sec)
Deprecated As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec), using a UTC TimeZone, followed by Calendar.getTime().getTime().

Determines the date and time based on the arguments.

private void
writeObject(ObjectOutputStream s)

Save the state of this object to a stream (i.e., serialize it).

Inherited from java.lang.Object:
finalizegetClassnotifynotifyAllwaitwaitwait

Field Detail

cdateback to summary
private transient BaseCalendar.Date cdate
defaultCenturyStartback to summary
private static int defaultCenturyStart
fastTimeback to summary
private transient long fastTime
gcalback to summary
private static final BaseCalendar gcal
jcalback to summary
private static BaseCalendar jcal
serialVersionUIDback to summary
private static final long serialVersionUID
Annotations
@Serial
ttbback to summary
private static final int[] ttb
wtbback to summary
private static final String[] wtb

Constructor Detail

Dateback to summary
public Date()

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the time at which it was allocated, measured to the nearest millisecond.

See Also
java.lang.System#currentTimeMillis()
Dateback to summary
public Date(long date)

Allocates a Date object and initializes it to represent the specified number of milliseconds since the standard base time known as "the epoch", namely January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.

Parameters
date:long

the milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.

See Also
java.lang.System#currentTimeMillis()
Dateback to summary
public Date(int year, int month, int date)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents midnight, local time, at the beginning of the day specified by the year, month, and date arguments.

Parameters
year:int

the year minus 1900.

month:int

the month between 0-11.

date:int

the day of the month between 1-31.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
Dateback to summary
public Date(int year, int month, int date, int hrs, int min)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the instant at the start of the minute specified by the year, month, date, hrs, and min arguments, in the local time zone.

Parameters
year:int

the year minus 1900.

month:int

the month between 0-11.

date:int

the day of the month between 1-31.

hrs:int

the hours between 0-23.

min:int

the minutes between 0-59.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
Dateback to summary
public Date(int year, int month, int date, int hrs, int min, int sec)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the instant at the start of the second specified by the year, month, date, hrs, min, and sec arguments, in the local time zone.

Parameters
year:int

the year minus 1900.

month:int

the month between 0-11.

date:int

the day of the month between 1-31.

hrs:int

the hours between 0-23.

min:int

the minutes between 0-59.

sec:int

the seconds between 0-59.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
Dateback to summary
public Date(String s)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.parse(String s).

Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the date and time indicated by the string s, which is interpreted as if by the Date#parse method.

Parameters
s:String

a string representation of the date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
Exceptions
IllegalArgumentException:
if s cannot be interpreted as a representation of a date and time.
See Also
java.text.DateFormat, java.util.Date#parse(java.lang.String)

Method Detail

afterback to summary
public boolean after(Date when)

Tests if this date is after the specified date.

Parameters
when:Date

a date.

Returns:boolean

true if and only if the instant represented by this Date object is strictly later than the instant represented by when; false otherwise.

Exceptions
NullPointerException:
if when is null.
beforeback to summary
public boolean before(Date when)

Tests if this date is before the specified date.

Parameters
when:Date

a date.

Returns:boolean

true if and only if the instant of time represented by this Date object is strictly earlier than the instant represented by when; false otherwise.

Exceptions
NullPointerException:
if when is null.
cloneback to summary
public Object clone()

Overrides java.lang.Object.clone.

Return a copy of this object.

Returns:Object

Doc from java.lang.Object.clone.

a clone of this instance.

compareToback to summary
public int compareTo(Date anotherDate)

Implements java.lang.Comparable.compareTo.

Compares two Dates for ordering.

Parameters
anotherDate:Date

the Date to be compared.

Returns:int

the value 0 if the argument Date is equal to this Date; a value less than 0 if this Date is before the Date argument; and a value greater than 0 if this Date is after the Date argument.

Annotations
@Override
Exceptions
NullPointerException:
if anotherDate is null.
Since
1.2
convertToAbbrback to summary
private static final StringBuilder convertToAbbr(StringBuilder sb, String name)

Converts the given name to its 3-letter abbreviation (e.g., "monday" -> "Mon") and stored the abbreviation in the given StringBuilder.

equalsback to summary
public boolean equals(Object obj)

Overrides java.lang.Object.equals.

Compares two dates for equality. The result is true if and only if the argument is not null and is a Date object that represents the same point in time, to the millisecond, as this object.

Thus, two Date objects are equal if and only if the getTime method returns the same long value for both.

Parameters
obj:Object

the object to compare with.

Returns:boolean

true if the objects are the same; false otherwise.

See Also
java.util.Date#getTime()
fromback to summary
public static Date from(Instant instant)

Obtains an instance of Date from an Instant object.

Instant uses a precision of nanoseconds, whereas Date uses a precision of milliseconds. The conversion will truncate any excess precision information as though the amount in nanoseconds was subject to integer division by one million.

Instant can store points on the time-line further in the future and further in the past than Date. In this scenario, this method will throw an exception.

Parameters
instant:Instant

the instant to convert

Returns:Date

a Date representing the same point on the time-line as the provided instant

Exceptions
NullPointerException:
if instant is null.
IllegalArgumentException:
if the instant is too large to represent as a Date
Since
1.8
getCalendarDateback to summary
private final BaseCalendar.Date getCalendarDate()
getCalendarSystemback to summary
private static final BaseCalendar getCalendarSystem(int year)

Returns the Gregorian or Julian calendar system to use with the given date. Use Gregorian from October 15, 1582.

Parameters
year:int

normalized calendar year (not -1900)

Returns:BaseCalendar

the CalendarSystem to use for the specified date

getCalendarSystemback to summary
private static final BaseCalendar getCalendarSystem(long utc)
getCalendarSystemback to summary
private static final BaseCalendar getCalendarSystem(BaseCalendar.Date cdate)
getDateback to summary
public int getDate()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH).

Returns the day of the month represented by this Date object. The value returned is between 1 and 31 representing the day of the month that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Returns:int

the day of the month represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getDayback to summary
public int getDay()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK).

Returns the day of the week represented by this date. The returned value (0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, 2 = Tuesday, 3 = Wednesday, 4 = Thursday, 5 = Friday, 6 = Saturday) represents the day of the week that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Returns:int

the day of the week represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getHoursback to summary
public int getHours()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY).

Returns the hour represented by this Date object. The returned value is a number (0 through 23) representing the hour within the day that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Returns:int

the hour represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getJulianCalendarback to summary
private static final synchronized BaseCalendar getJulianCalendar()
getMillisOfback to summary
pack-priv static final long getMillisOf(Date date)

Returns the millisecond value of this Date object without affecting its internal state.

getMinutesback to summary
public int getMinutes()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE).

Returns the number of minutes past the hour represented by this date, as interpreted in the local time zone. The value returned is between 0 and 59.

Returns:int

the number of minutes past the hour represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getMonthback to summary
public int getMonth()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH).

Returns a number representing the month that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object. The value returned is between 0 and 11, with the value 0 representing January.

Returns:int

the month represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getSecondsback to summary
public int getSeconds()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND).

Returns the number of seconds past the minute represented by this date. The value returned is between 0 and 61. The values 60 and 61 can only occur on those Java Virtual Machines that take leap seconds into account.

Returns:int

the number of seconds past the minute represented by this date.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
getTimeback to summary
public long getTime()

Returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this Date object.

Returns:long

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this date.

getTimeImplback to summary
private final long getTimeImpl()
getTimezoneOffsetback to summary
public int getTimezoneOffset()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by -(Calendar.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET) + Calendar.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET)) / (60 * 1000).

Returns the offset, measured in minutes, for the local time zone relative to UTC that is appropriate for the time represented by this Date object.

For example, in Massachusetts, five time zones west of Greenwich: 

new Date(96, 1, 14).getTimezoneOffset() returns 300
because on February 14, 1996, standard time (Eastern Standard Time) is in use, which is offset five hours from UTC; but: 
new Date(96, 5, 1).getTimezoneOffset() returns 240
because on June 1, 1996, daylight saving time (Eastern Daylight Time) is in use, which is offset only four hours from UTC.

This method produces the same result as if it computed: 

(this.getTime() - UTC(this.getYear(),
                      this.getMonth(),
                      this.getDate(),
                      this.getHours(),
                      this.getMinutes(),
                      this.getSeconds())) / (60 * 1000)
Returns:int

the time-zone offset, in minutes, for the current time zone.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar#ZONE_OFFSET, java.util.Calendar#DST_OFFSET, java.util.TimeZone#getDefault
getYearback to summary
public int getYear()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) - 1900.

Returns a value that is the result of subtracting 1900 from the year that contains or begins with the instant in time represented by this Date object, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Returns:int

the year represented by this date, minus 1900.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
hashCodeback to summary
public int hashCode()

Overrides java.lang.Object.hashCode.

Returns a hash code value for this object. The result is the exclusive OR of the two halves of the primitive long value returned by the Date#getTime method. That is, the hash code is the value of the expression: 

(int)(this.getTime()^(this.getTime() >>> 32))
Returns:int

a hash code value for this object.

normalizeback to summary
private final BaseCalendar.Date normalize()
normalizeback to summary
private final BaseCalendar.Date normalize(BaseCalendar.Date date)
parseback to summary
public static long parse(String s)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.parse(String s).

Attempts to interpret the string s as a representation of a date and time. If the attempt is successful, the time indicated is returned represented as the distance, measured in milliseconds, of that time from the epoch (00:00:00 GMT on January 1, 1970). If the attempt fails, an IllegalArgumentException is thrown.

It accepts many syntaxes; in particular, it recognizes the IETF standard date syntax: "Sat, 12 Aug 1995 13:30:00 GMT". It also understands the continental U.S. time-zone abbreviations, but for general use, a time-zone offset should be used: "Sat, 12 Aug 1995 13:30:00 GMT+0430" (4 hours, 30 minutes west of the Greenwich meridian). If no time zone is specified, the local time zone is assumed. GMT and UTC are considered equivalent.

The string s is processed from left to right, looking for data of interest. Any material in s that is within the ASCII parenthesis characters ( and ) is ignored. Parentheses may be nested. Otherwise, the only characters permitted within s are these ASCII characters: 

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
0123456789,+-:/
and whitespace characters.

A consecutive sequence of decimal digits is treated as a decimal number:

  • If a number is preceded by + or - and a year has already been recognized, then the number is a time-zone offset. If the number is less than 24, it is an offset measured in hours. Otherwise, it is regarded as an offset in minutes, expressed in 24-hour time format without punctuation. A preceding - means a westward offset. Time zone offsets are always relative to UTC (Greenwich). Thus, for example, -5 occurring in the string would mean "five hours west of Greenwich" and +0430 would mean "four hours and thirty minutes east of Greenwich." It is permitted for the string to specify GMT, UT, or UTC redundantly-for example, GMT-5 or utc+0430.
  • The number is regarded as a year number if one of the following conditions is true:
    • The number is equal to or greater than 70 and followed by a space, comma, slash, or end of string
    • The number is less than 70, and both a month and a day of the month have already been recognized
    If the recognized year number is less than 100, it is interpreted as an abbreviated year relative to a century of which dates are within 80 years before and 19 years after the time when the Date class is initialized. After adjusting the year number, 1900 is subtracted from it. For example, if the current year is 1999 then years in the range 19 to 99 are assumed to mean 1919 to 1999, while years from 0 to 18 are assumed to mean 2000 to 2018. Note that this is slightly different from the interpretation of years less than 100 that is used in java.text.SimpleDateFormat.
  • If the number is followed by a colon, it is regarded as an hour, unless an hour has already been recognized, in which case it is regarded as a minute.
  • If the number is followed by a slash, it is regarded as a month (it is decreased by 1 to produce a number in the range 0 to 11), unless a month has already been recognized, in which case it is regarded as a day of the month.
  • If the number is followed by whitespace, a comma, a hyphen, or end of string, then if an hour has been recognized but not a minute, it is regarded as a minute; otherwise, if a minute has been recognized but not a second, it is regarded as a second; otherwise, it is regarded as a day of the month.

A consecutive sequence of letters is regarded as a word and treated as follows:

  • A word that matches AM, ignoring case, is ignored (but the parse fails if an hour has not been recognized or is less than 1 or greater than 12).
  • A word that matches PM, ignoring case, adds 12 to the hour (but the parse fails if an hour has not been recognized or is less than 1 or greater than 12).
  • Any word that matches any prefix of SUNDAY, MONDAY, TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, or SATURDAY, ignoring case, is ignored. For example, sat, Friday, TUE, and Thurs are ignored.
  • Otherwise, any word that matches any prefix of JANUARY, FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL, MAY, JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, or DECEMBER, ignoring case, and considering them in the order given here, is recognized as specifying a month and is converted to a number (0 to 11). For example, aug, Sept, april, and NOV are recognized as months. So is Ma, which is recognized as MARCH, not MAY.
  • Any word that matches GMT, UT, or UTC, ignoring case, is treated as referring to UTC.
  • Any word that matches EST, CST, MST, or PST, ignoring case, is recognized as referring to the time zone in North America that is five, six, seven, or eight hours west of Greenwich, respectively. Any word that matches EDT, CDT, MDT, or PDT, ignoring case, is recognized as referring to the same time zone, respectively, during daylight saving time.

Once the entire string s has been scanned, it is converted to a time result in one of two ways. If a time zone or time-zone offset has been recognized, then the year, month, day of month, hour, minute, and second are interpreted in UTC and then the time-zone offset is applied. Otherwise, the year, month, day of month, hour, minute, and second are interpreted in the local time zone.

Parameters
s:String

a string to be parsed as a date.

Returns:long

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by the string argument.

Annotations
@Deprecated
Exceptions
IllegalArgumentException:
if s cannot be interpreted as a representation of a date and time.
See Also
java.text.DateFormat
readObjectback to summary
private void readObject(ObjectInputStream s) throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException

Reconstitute this object from a stream (i.e., deserialize it).

Annotations
@Serial
setDateback to summary
public void setDate(int date)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, int date).

Sets the day of the month of this Date object to the specified value. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified day of the month, with the year, month, hour, minute, and second the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone. If the date was April 30, for example, and the date is set to 31, then it will be treated as if it were on May 1, because April has only 30 days.

Parameters
date:int

the day of the month value between 1-31.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
setHoursback to summary
public void setHours(int hours)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, int hours).

Sets the hour of this Date object to the specified value. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified hour of the day, with the year, month, date, minute, and second the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Parameters
hours:int

the hour value.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
setMinutesback to summary
public void setMinutes(int minutes)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, int minutes).

Sets the minutes of this Date object to the specified value. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified minute of the hour, with the year, month, date, hour, and second the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Parameters
minutes:int

the value of the minutes.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
setMonthback to summary
public void setMonth(int month)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.MONTH, int month).

Sets the month of this date to the specified value. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified month, with the year, date, hour, minute, and second the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone. If the date was October 31, for example, and the month is set to June, then the new date will be treated as if it were on July 1, because June has only 30 days.

Parameters
month:int

the month value between 0-11.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
setSecondsback to summary
public void setSeconds(int seconds)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, int seconds).

Sets the seconds of this Date to the specified value. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified second of the minute, with the year, month, date, hour, and minute the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone.

Parameters
seconds:int

the seconds value.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
setTimeback to summary
public void setTime(long time)

Sets this Date object to represent a point in time that is time milliseconds after January 1, 1970 00:00:00 GMT.

Parameters
time:long

the number of milliseconds.

setYearback to summary
public void setYear(int year)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(Calendar.YEAR, year + 1900).

Sets the year of this Date object to be the specified value plus 1900. This Date object is modified so that it represents a point in time within the specified year, with the month, date, hour, minute, and second the same as before, as interpreted in the local time zone. (Of course, if the date was February 29, for example, and the year is set to a non-leap year, then the new date will be treated as if it were on March 1.)

Parameters
year:int

the year value.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
toGMTStringback to summary
public String toGMTString()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.format(Date date), using a GMT TimeZone.

Creates a string representation of this Date object of the form: 

d mon yyyy hh:mm:ss GMT
where:
  • d is the day of the month (1 through 31), as one or two decimal digits.
  • mon is the month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec).
  • yyyy is the year, as four decimal digits.
  • hh is the hour of the day (00 through 23), as two decimal digits.
  • mm is the minute within the hour (00 through 59), as two decimal digits.
  • ss is the second within the minute (00 through 61), as two decimal digits.
  • GMT is exactly the ASCII letters "GMT" to indicate Greenwich Mean Time.

The result does not depend on the local time zone.

Returns:String

a string representation of this date, using the Internet GMT conventions.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.text.DateFormat, java.util.Date#toString(), java.util.Date#toLocaleString()
toInstantback to summary
public Instant toInstant()

Converts this Date object to an Instant.

The conversion creates an Instant that represents the same point on the time-line as this Date.

Returns:Instant

an instant representing the same point on the time-line as this Date object

Since
1.8
toLocaleStringback to summary
public String toLocaleString()

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by DateFormat.format(Date date).

Creates a string representation of this Date object in an implementation-dependent form. The intent is that the form should be familiar to the user of the Java application, wherever it may happen to be running. The intent is comparable to that of the "%c" format supported by the strftime() function of ISO C.

Returns:String

a string representation of this date, using the locale conventions.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.text.DateFormat, java.util.Date#toString(), java.util.Date#toGMTString()
toStringback to summary
public String toString()

Overrides java.lang.Object.toString.

Converts this Date object to a String of the form: 

dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy
where:
  • dow is the day of the week (Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat).
  • mon is the month (Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec).
  • dd is the day of the month (01 through 31), as two decimal digits.
  • hh is the hour of the day (00 through 23), as two decimal digits.
  • mm is the minute within the hour (00 through 59), as two decimal digits.
  • ss is the second within the minute (00 through 61, as two decimal digits.
  • zzz is the time zone (and may reflect daylight saving time). Standard time zone abbreviations include those recognized by the method parse. If time zone information is not available, then zzz is empty - that is, it consists of no characters at all.
  • yyyy is the year, as four decimal digits.
Returns:String

a string representation of this date.

See Also
java.util.Date#toLocaleString(), java.util.Date#toGMTString()
UTCback to summary
public static long UTC(int year, int month, int date, int hrs, int min, int sec)

Deprecated

As of JDK version 1.1, replaced by Calendar.set(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec) or GregorianCalendar(year + 1900, month, date, hrs, min, sec), using a UTC TimeZone, followed by Calendar.getTime().getTime().

Determines the date and time based on the arguments. The arguments are interpreted as a year, month, day of the month, hour of the day, minute within the hour, and second within the minute, exactly as for the Date constructor with six arguments, except that the arguments are interpreted relative to UTC rather than to the local time zone. The time indicated is returned represented as the distance, measured in milliseconds, of that time from the epoch (00:00:00 GMT on January 1, 1970).

Parameters
year:int

the year minus 1900.

month:int

the month between 0-11.

date:int

the day of the month between 1-31.

hrs:int

the hours between 0-23.

min:int

the minutes between 0-59.

sec:int

the seconds between 0-59.

Returns:long

the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT for the date and time specified by the arguments.

Annotations
@Deprecated
See Also
java.util.Calendar
writeObjectback to summary
private void writeObject(ObjectOutputStream s) throws IOException

Save the state of this object to a stream (i.e., serialize it).

Annotations
@Serial
Serial data
The value returned by getTime() is emitted (long). This represents the offset from January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT in milliseconds.