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

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

Here is my simple approach to get Current day

public String getCurrentDay(){

    String daysArray[] = {"Sunday","Monday","Tuesday", "Wednesday","Thursday","Friday", "Saturday"};

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

    return daysArray[day];

}

Using both method you find easy if you wont last seven days you use (currentdaynumber+7-1)%7,(currentdaynumber+7-2)%7.....upto 6

public static String getDayName(int day){
    switch(day){
        case 0:
            return "Sunday";
        case 1:
            return "Monday";
        case 2:
            return "Tuesday";
        case 3:
            return "Wednesday";
        case 4:
            return "Thursday";
        case 5:
            return  "Friday";
        case 6:
            return "Saturday";
    }

    return "Worng Day";
}
public static String getCurrentDay(){
    SimpleDateFormat dayFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.US);
    Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    return dayFormat.format(calendar.getTime());

}

Just in case you ever want to do this not on Android it's helpful to think about which day where as not all devices mark their calendar in local time.

From Java 8 onwards:

LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("America/Detroit")).getDayOfWeek()

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.

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

If you do not want to use Calendar class at all you can use this

String weekday_name = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE", Locale.ENGLISH).format(System.currentTimeMillis());

i.e., result is,

"Sunday"

As DAY_OF_WEEK in GregorianCalender class is a static field you can access it directly as foolows

int dayOfWeek = GregorianCalender.DAY_OF_WEEK;

If you want to define the date string in strings.xml. You can do like below.
Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK return value from 1 -> 7 <=> Calendar.SUNDAY -> Calendar.SATURDAY

strings.xml

<string-array name="title_day_of_week">
    <item>?</item> <!-- sunday -->
    <item>?</item> <!-- monday -->
    <item>?</item>
    <item>?</item>
    <item>?</item>
    <item>?</item>
    <item>?</item> <!-- saturday -->
</string-array>

DateExtension.kt

fun String.getDayOfWeek(context: Context, format: String): String {
    val date = SimpleDateFormat(format, Locale.getDefault()).parse(this)
    return date?.getDayOfWeek(context) ?: "unknown"
}

fun Date.getDayOfWeek(context: Context): String {
    val c = Calendar.getInstance().apply { time = this@getDayOfWeek }
    return context.resources.getStringArray(R.array.title_day_of_week)[c[Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK] - 1]
}

Using

// get current day
val currentDay = Date().getDayOfWeek(context)

// get specific day
val dayString = "2021-1-4"
val day = dayString.getDayOfWeek(context, "yyyy-MM-dd")

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

public String weekdays[] = new      DateFormatSymbols(Locale.ITALIAN).getWeekdays();
 Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
 Date date = new Date();
 c.setTime(date);
 int dayOfWeek = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);
 System.out.println(dayOfWeek);
 System.out.println(weekdays[dayOfWeek]);

you can use that code for Kotlin which you will use calendar class from java into Kotlin

    val day = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)

    fun dayOfWeek() {
    println("What day is it today?")
    val day = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK)
    println( when (day) {
      1 -> "Sunday"
      2 -> "Monday"
      3 -> "Tuesday"
      4 -> "Wednesday"
      5 -> "Thursday"
      6 -> "Friday"
      7 -> "Saturday"
      else -> "Time has stopped"
   })
 }