[java] How to determine day of week by passing specific date?

For Example I have the date: "23/2/2010" (23th Feb 2010). I want to pass it to a function which would return the day of week. How can I do this?

In this example, the function should return String "Tue".

Additionally, if just the day ordinal is desired, how can that be retrieved?

This question is related to java date

The answer is


Program to find the day of the week by giving user input date month and year using java.util.scanner package:

import java.util.Scanner;

public class Calender {
    public static String getDay(String day, String month, String year) {

        int ym, yp, d, ay, a = 0;
        int by = 20;
        int[] y = new int[]{6, 4, 2, 0};
        int[] m = new int []{0, 3, 3, 6, 1, 4, 6, 2, 5, 0, 3, 5};

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

        int gd = Integer.parseInt(day);
        int gm = Integer.parseInt(month);
        int gy = Integer.parseInt(year);

        ym = gy % 100;
        yp = ym / 4;
        ay = gy / 100;

        while (ay != by) {
            by = by + 1;
            a = a + 1;

            if(a == 4) {
                a = 0;
            }
        }

        if ((ym % 4 == 0) && (gm == 2)) {
            d = (gd + m[gm - 1] + ym + yp + y[a] - 1) % 7;
        } else
            d = (gd + m[gm - 1] + ym + yp + y[a]) % 7;

        return wd[d];
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in);

        String day = in.next();
        String month = in.next();
        String year = in.next();

        System.out.println(getDay(day, month, year));
    }
}

Adding another way of doing it exactly what the OP asked for, without using latest inbuilt methods:

public static String getDay(String inputDate) {
    String dayOfWeek = null;
    String[] days = new String[]{"Mon", "Tue", "Wed", "Thu", "Fri", "Sat", "Sun"};

    try {
        SimpleDateFormat format1 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
        Date dt1 = format1.parse(inputDate);
        dayOfWeek = days[dt1.getDay() - 1];
    } catch(Exception e) {
        System.out.println(e);
    }

    return dayOfWeek;
}

Calendar class has build-in displayName functionality:

Calendar.getInstance().getDisplayName(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK, Calendar.SHORT, Locale.getDefault()); // Thu   

Calendar.SHORT -> Thu
Calendar.LONG_FORMAT -> Thursday

Available since Java 1.6. See also Oracle documentation


This works correctly...

java.time.LocalDate; //package related to time and date

It provides inbuilt method getDayOfWeek() to get the day of a particular week:

int t;
Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
t = s.nextInt();
s.nextLine();
 while(t-->0) { 
    int d, m, y;
    String ss = s.nextLine();
    String []sss = ss.split(" ");
    d=Integer.parseInt(sss[0]);
    m = Integer.parseInt(sss[1]);
    y = Integer.parseInt(sss[2]);

    LocalDate l = LocalDate.of(y, m, d); //method to get the localdate instance
    System.out.println(l.getDayOfWeek()); //this returns the enum DayOfWeek

To assign the value of enum l.getDayOfWeek() to a string, you could probably use the method of Enum called name() that returns the value of enum object.


public class TryDateFormats {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
        String month = "08";
        String day = "05";
        String year = "2015";
        String inputDateStr = String.format("%s/%s/%s", day, month, year);
        Date inputDate = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(inputDateStr);
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
        calendar.setTime(inputDate);
        String dayOfWeek = calendar.getDisplayName(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK, Calendar.LONG, Locale.US).toUpperCase();
        System.out.println(dayOfWeek);
    }
}

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Scanner;

class DayFromDate {

    public static void main(String args[]) {

        System.out.println("Enter the date(dd/mm/yyyy):");
        Scanner scan = new Scanner(System.in);
        String Date = scan.nextLine();

        try {
            boolean dateValid = dateValidate(Date);

            if(dateValid == true) {
                SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat( "dd/MM/yy" );  
                java.util.Date date = df.parse( Date );   
                df.applyPattern( "EEE" );  
                String day= df.format( date ); 

                if(day.compareTo("Sat") == 0 || day.compareTo("Sun") == 0) {
                    System.out.println(day + ": Weekend");
                } else {
                    System.out.println(day + ": Weekday");
                }
            } else {
                System.out.println("Invalid Date!!!");
            }
        } catch(Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Invalid Date Formats!!!");
        }
     }

    static public boolean dateValidate(String d) {

        String dateArray[] = d.split("/");
        int day = Integer.parseInt(dateArray[0]);
        int month = Integer.parseInt(dateArray[1]);
        int year = Integer.parseInt(dateArray[2]);
        System.out.print(day + "\n" + month + "\n" + year + "\n");
        boolean leapYear = false;

        if((year % 4 == 0) && (year % 100 != 0) || (year % 400 == 0)) {
            leapYear = true;
        }

        if(year > 2099 || year < 1900)
            return false;

        if(month < 13) {
            if(month == 1 || month == 3 || month == 5 || month == 7 || month == 8 || month == 10 || month == 12) {
                if(day > 31)
                    return false;
            } else if(month == 4 || month == 6 || month == 9 || month == 11) {
                if(day > 30)
                    return false;
            } else if(leapYear == true && month == 2) {
                if(day > 29)
                    return false;
            } else if(leapYear == false && month == 2) {
                if(day > 28)
                    return false;
            }

            return true;    
        } else return false;
    }
}

LocalDate date=LocalDate.now();

System.out.println(date.getDayOfWeek());//prints THURSDAY
System.out.println(date.getDayOfWeek().getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT, Locale.US) );  //prints Thu   
java.time.DayOfWeek is a enum which returns the singleton instance for the day-of-week of the weekday of the date.

For Java 8 or Later, Localdate is preferable

import java.time.LocalDate;

public static String findDay(int month, int day, int year) {

    LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of(year, month, day);

    java.time.DayOfWeek dayOfWeek = localDate.getDayOfWeek();
    System.out.println(dayOfWeek);

    return dayOfWeek.toString();
}

Note : if input is String/User defined, then you should parse it into int.


You can use below method to get Day of the Week by passing a specific date,

Here for the set method of Calendar class, Tricky part is the index for the month parameter will starts from 0.

public static String getDay(int day, int month, int year) {

        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();

        if(month==1){
            cal.set(year,0,day);
        }else{
            cal.set(year,month-1,day);
        }

        int dow = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

        switch (dow) {
        case 1:
            return "SUNDAY";
        case 2:
            return "MONDAY";
        case 3:
            return "TUESDAY";
        case 4:
            return "WEDNESDAY";
        case 5:
            return "THURSDAY";
        case 6:
            return "FRIDAY";
        case 7:
            return "SATURDAY";
        default:
            System.out.println("GO To Hell....");
        }

        return null;
    }

...
import java.time.LocalDate;
...
//String month = in.next();
int mm = in.nextInt();
//String day = in.next();
int dd = in.nextInt();
//String year = in.next();
int yy = in.nextInt();
in.close();
LocalDate dt = LocalDate.of(yy, mm, dd);
System.out.print(dt.getDayOfWeek());

java.time

Using java.time framework built into Java 8 and later.

The DayOfWeek enum can generate a String of the day’s name automatically localized to the human language and cultural norms of a Locale. Specify a TextStyle to indicate you want long form or abbreviated name.

import java.time.LocalDate
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter
import java.time.format.TextStyle
import java.util.Locale
import java.time.DayOfWeek;

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d/M/yyyy");
LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse("23/2/2010", formatter); // LocalDate = 2010-02-23
DayOfWeek dow = date.getDayOfWeek();  // Extracts a `DayOfWeek` enum object.
String output = dow.getDisplayName(TextStyle.SHORT, Locale.US); // String = Tue

//to get day of any date

import java.util.Scanner; 
import java.util.Calendar; 
import java.util.Date;

public class Show {

    public static String getDay(String day,String month, String year){


            String input_date = month+"/"+day+"/"+year;

            Date now = new Date(input_date);
            Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
            calendar.setTime(now);
            int final_day = (calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK));

            String finalDay[]={"SUNDAY","MONDAY","TUESDAY","WEDNESDAY","THURSDAY","FRIDAY","SATURDAY"};

            System.out.println(finalDay[final_day-1]);

    }

    public static void main(String[] args) { 
            Scanner in = new Scanner(System.in); 
            String month = in.next(); 
        String day = in.next();
            String year = in.next();

            getDay(day, month, year);
    }

}

Simply use SimpleDateFormat.

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy", java.util.Locale.ENGLISH);
Date myDate = sdf.parse("28/12/2013");
sdf.applyPattern("EEE, d MMM yyyy");
String sMyDate = sdf.format(myDate);

The result is: Sat, 28 Dec 2013

The default constructor is taking "the default" Locale, so be careful using it when you need a specific pattern.

public SimpleDateFormat(String pattern) {
    this(pattern, Locale.getDefault(Locale.Category.FORMAT));
}

You can try the following code:

import java.time.*;

public class Test{
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      DayOfWeek dow = LocalDate.of(2010,Month.FEBRUARY,23).getDayOfWeek();
      String s = String.valueOf(dow);
      System.out.println(String.format("%.3s",s));
   }
}

Can use the following code snippet for input like (day = "08", month = "05", year = "2015" and output will be "WEDNESDAY")

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, Integer.parseInt(day));
calendar.set(Calendar.MONTH, (Integer.parseInt(month)-1));
calendar.set(Calendar.YEAR, Integer.parseInt(year));
String dayOfWeek = calendar.getDisplayName(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK, Calendar.LONG, Locale.US).toUpperCase();

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(desired date);
cal.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
int dayOfWeek = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

Get the day value by providing the current time stamp.


There is a challenge on hackerrank Java Date and Time

personally, I prefer the LocalDate class.

  1. Import java.time.LocalDate
  2. Retrieve localDate by using "of" method which takes 3 arguments in "int" format.
  3. finally, get the name of that day using "getDayOfWeek" method.

There is one video on this challenge.

Java Date and Time Hackerrank solution

I hope it will help :)


private String getDay(Date date){

    SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
    //System.out.println("DAY "+simpleDateFormat.format(date).toUpperCase());                       
    return simpleDateFormat.format(date).toUpperCase();
}

private String getDay(String dateStr){
    //dateStr must be in DD-MM-YYYY Formate
    Date date = null;
    String day=null;

    try {
        date = new SimpleDateFormat("DD-MM-YYYY").parse(dateStr);

        SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE");
        //System.out.println("DAY "+simpleDateFormat.format(date).toUpperCase());
        day = simpleDateFormat.format(date).toUpperCase();


    } catch (ParseException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }


    return day;
}

Another "fun" way is to use Doomsday algorithm. It's a way longer method but it's also faster if you don't need to create a Calendar object with a given date.

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Random;

/**
 *
 * @author alain.janinmanificat
 */
public class Doomsday {

    public static HashMap<Integer, ArrayList<Integer>> anchorDaysMap = new HashMap<>();
    public static HashMap<Integer, Integer> doomsdayDate = new HashMap<>();
    public static String weekdays[] = new DateFormatSymbols(Locale.FRENCH).getWeekdays();

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException, ParseException {

        // Map is fed manually but we can use this to calculate it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_rule#Finding_a_century.27s_anchor_day
        anchorDaysMap.put(Integer.valueOf(0), new ArrayList<Integer>() {
            {
                add(Integer.valueOf(1700));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2100));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2500));
            }
        });

        anchorDaysMap.put(Integer.valueOf(2), new ArrayList<Integer>() {
            {
                add(Integer.valueOf(1600));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2000));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2400));
            }
        });

        anchorDaysMap.put(Integer.valueOf(3), new ArrayList<Integer>() {
            {
                add(Integer.valueOf(1500));
                add(Integer.valueOf(1900));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2300));
            }
        });

        anchorDaysMap.put(Integer.valueOf(5), new ArrayList<Integer>() {
            {
                add(Integer.valueOf(1800));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2200));
                add(Integer.valueOf(2600));
            }
        });

        //Some reference date that always land on Doomsday
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(1), Integer.valueOf(3));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(2), Integer.valueOf(14));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(3), Integer.valueOf(14));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(4), Integer.valueOf(4));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(5), Integer.valueOf(9));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(6), Integer.valueOf(6));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(7), Integer.valueOf(4));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(8), Integer.valueOf(8));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(9), Integer.valueOf(5));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(10), Integer.valueOf(10));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(11), Integer.valueOf(7));
        doomsdayDate.put(Integer.valueOf(12), Integer.valueOf(12));

        long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {

            //Get a random date
            int year = 1583 + new Random().nextInt(500);
            int month = 1 + new Random().nextInt(12);
            int day = 1 + new Random().nextInt(7);

            //Get anchor day and DoomsDay for current date
            int twoDigitsYear = (year % 100);
            int century = year - twoDigitsYear;
            int adForCentury = getADCentury(century);
            int dd = ((int) twoDigitsYear / 12) + twoDigitsYear % 12 + (int) ((twoDigitsYear % 12) / 4);

            //Get the gap between current date and a reference DoomsDay date
            int referenceDay = doomsdayDate.get(month);
            int gap = (day - referenceDay) % 7;

            int result = (gap + adForCentury + dd) % 7;

            if(result<0){
                result*=-1;
            }
            String dayDate= weekdays[(result + 1) % 8];
            //System.out.println("day:" + dayDate);
        }
        System.out.println("time (ms) : " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - time)); //time (ms) : 80

         time = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++) {
            Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
            //I should have used random date here too, but it's already slower this way
            c.setTime(new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse("12/04/1861"));
//            System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("EE").format(c.getTime()));
            int result2 = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);
//            System.out.println("day idx :"+ result2);
        }
        System.out.println("time (ms) : " + (System.currentTimeMillis() - time)); //time (ms) : 884
    }

    public static int getADCentury(int century) {
        for (Map.Entry<Integer, ArrayList<Integer>> entry : anchorDaysMap.entrySet()) {
            if (entry.getValue().contains(Integer.valueOf(century))) {
                return entry.getKey();
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }
}

  String input_date="01/08/2012";
  SimpleDateFormat format1=new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
  Date dt1=format1.parse(input_date);
  DateFormat format2=new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE"); 
  String finalDay=format2.format(dt1);

Use this code for find the Day name from a input date.Simple and well tested.


tl;dr

Using java.time

LocalDate.parse(                               // Generate `LocalDate` object from String input.
             "23/2/2010" ,
             DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "d/M/uuuu" ) 
         )                                    
         .getDayOfWeek()                       // Get `DayOfWeek` enum object.
         .getDisplayName(                      // Localize. Generate a String to represent this day-of-week.
             TextStyle.SHORT_STANDALONE ,      // How long or abbreviated. Some languages have an alternate spelling for "standalone" use (not so in English).
             Locale.US                         // Or Locale.CANADA_FRENCH and such. Specify a `Locale` to determine (1) human language for translation, and (2) cultural norms for abbreviation, punctuation, etc.
         ) 

Tue

See this code run live at IdeOne.com (but only Locale.US works there).

java.time

See my example code above, and see the correct Answer for java.time by Przemek.

Ordinal number

if just the day ordinal is desired, how can that be retrieved?

For ordinal number, consider passing around the DayOfWeek enum object instead such as DayOfWeek.TUESDAY. Keep in mind that a DayOfWeek is a smart object, not just a string or mere integer number. Using those enum objects makes your code more self-documenting, ensures valid values, and provides type-safety.

But if you insist, ask DayOfWeek for a number. You get 1-7 for Monday-Sunday per the ISO 8601 standard.

int ordinal = myLocalDate.getDayOfWeek().getValue() ;

Joda-Time

UPDATE: The Joda-Time project is now in maintenance mode. The team advises migrating to the java.time classes. The java.time framework is built into Java 8 (as well as back-ported to Java 6 & 7 and further adapted to Android).

Here is example code using the Joda-Time library version 2.4, as mentioned in the accepted answer by Bozho. Joda-Time is far superior to the java.util.Date/.Calendar classes bundled with Java.

LocalDate

Joda-Time offers the LocalDate class to represent a date-only without any time-of-day or time zone. Just what this Question calls for. The old java.util.Date/.Calendar classes bundled with Java lack this concept.

Parse

Parse the string into a date value.

String input = "23/2/2010";
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "d/M/yyyy" );
LocalDate localDate = formatter.parseLocalDate( input );

Extract

Extract from the date value the day of week number and name.

int dayOfWeek = localDate.getDayOfWeek(); // Follows ISO 8601 standard, where Monday = 1, Sunday = 7.
Locale locale = Locale.US;  // Locale specifies the human language to use in determining day-of-week name (Tuesday in English versus Mardi in French).
DateTimeFormatter formatterOutput = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "E" ).withLocale( locale );
String output = formatterOutput.print( localDate ); // 'E' is code for abbreviation of day-of-week name. See Joda-Time doc.
String outputQuébécois = formatterOutput.withLocale( Locale.CANADA_FRENCH ).print( localDate );

Dump

Dump to console.

System.out.println( "input: " + input );
System.out.println( "localDate: " + localDate ); // Defaults to ISO 8601 formatted strings.
System.out.println( "dayOfWeek: " + dayOfWeek );
System.out.println( "output: " + output );
System.out.println( "outputQuébécois: " + outputQuébécois );

Run

When run.

input: 23/2/2010
localDate: 2010-02-23
dayOfWeek: 2
output: Tue
outputQuébécois: mar.

About java.time

The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date, Calendar, & SimpleDateFormat.

The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.

To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.


method below retrieves seven days and return short name of days in List Array in Kotlin though, you can just reformat then in Java format, just presenting idea how Calendar can return short name

private fun getDayDisplayName():List<String>{
        val calendar = Calendar.getInstance()
        val dates= mutableListOf<String>()
        dates.clear()
        val s=   calendar.getDisplayName(DAY_OF_WEEK, SHORT, Locale.US)
        dates.add(s)
        for(i in 0..5){
            calendar.roll( Calendar.DATE, -1)
            dates.add(calendar.getDisplayName(DAY_OF_WEEK, SHORT, Locale.US))
        }
        return dates.toList()
    }

out put results like

I/System.out: Wed
    Tue
    Mon
    Sun
I/System.out: Sat
    Fri
    Thu

Below is the two line of snippet using Java 1.8 Time API for your Requirement.

LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of(Integer.valueOf(year),Integer.valueOf(month),Integer.valueOf(day));
String dayOfWeek = String.valueOf(localDate.getDayOfWeek());

One line answer:

return LocalDate.parse("06/02/2018",DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd/MM/yyyy")).getDayOfWeek().name();

Usage Example:

public static String getDayOfWeek(String date){
  return LocalDate.parse(date, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd/MM/yyyy")).getDayOfWeek().name();
}

public static void callerMethod(){
   System.out.println(getDayOfWeek("06/02/2018")); //TUESDAY
}