[java] How can I change the date format in Java?

I need to change the date format using Java from

 dd/MM/yyyy  to yyyy/MM/dd

tl;dr

LocalDate.parse( 
    "23/01/2017" ,  
    DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "dd/MM/uuuu" , Locale.UK ) 
).format(
    DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "uuuu/MM/dd" , Locale.UK )
)

2017/01/23

Avoid legacy date-time classes

The answer by Christopher Parker is correct but outdated. The troublesome old date-time classes such as java.util.Date, java.util.Calendar, and java.text.SimpleTextFormat are now legacy, supplanted by the java.time classes.

Using java.time

Parse the input string as a date-time object, then generate a new String object in the desired format.

The LocalDate class represents a date-only value without time-of-day and without time zone.

DateTimeFormatter fIn = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "dd/MM/uuuu" , Locale.UK );  // As a habit, specify the desired/expected locale, though in this case the locale is irrelevant.
LocalDate ld = LocalDate.parse( "23/01/2017" , fIn );

Define another formatter for the output.

DateTimeFormatter fOut = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "uuuu/MM/dd" , Locale.UK );
String output = ld.format( fOut );

2017/01/23

By the way, consider using standard ISO 8601 formats for strings representing date-time values.

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?

• Java SE 8, Java SE 9, and later
  • Built-in.
  • Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
  • Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
• Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
  • Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
• Android
  • The ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above) for Android specifically.
  • See How to use ThreeTenABP….

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.

Joda-Time

UPDATE: The Joda-Time project is now in maintenance mode, with the team advising migration to the java.time classes. This section here is left for the sake of history.

For fun, here is his code adapted for using the Joda-Time library.

// © 2013 Basil Bourque. This source code may be used freely forever by anyone taking full responsibility for doing so.
// import org.joda.time.*;
// import org.joda.time.format.*;

final String OLD_FORMAT = "dd/MM/yyyy";
final String NEW_FORMAT = "yyyy/MM/dd";

// August 12, 2010
String oldDateString = "12/08/2010";
String newDateString;

DateTimeFormatter formatterOld = DateTimeFormat.forPattern(OLD_FORMAT);
DateTimeFormatter formatterNew = DateTimeFormat.forPattern(NEW_FORMAT);
LocalDate localDate = formatterOld.parseLocalDate( oldDateString );
newDateString = formatterNew.print( localDate );

Dump to console…

System.out.println( "localDate: " + localDate );
System.out.println( "newDateString: " + newDateString );

When run…

localDate: 2010-08-12
newDateString: 2010/08/12

SimpleDateFormat format1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
System.out.println(format1.format(date));

Or you could go the regex route:

String date = "10/07/2010";
String newDate = date.replaceAll("(\\d+)/(\\d+)/(\\d+)", "$3/$2/$1");
System.out.println(newDate);

It works both ways too. Of course this won't actually validate your date and will also work for strings like "21432/32423/52352". You can use "(\\d{2})/(\\d{2})/(\\d{4}" to be more exact in the number of digits in each group, but it will only work from dd/MM/yyyy to yyyy/MM/dd and not the other way around anymore (and still accepts invalid numbers in there like 45). And if you give it something invalid like "blabla" it will just return the same thing back.

To Change the format of Date you have Require both format look below.

 String stringdate1 = "28/04/2010";  

 try {

     SimpleDateFormat format1 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
     Date date1 = format1.parse()
     SimpleDateFormat format2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");

     String stringdate2 = format2.format(date1);
    } catch (ParseException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}

here stringdate2 have date format of yyyy/MM/dd. and it contain 2010/04/28.

Use SimpleDateFormat

    String DATE_FORMAT = "yyyy/MM/dd";
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
    System.out.println("Formated Date " + sdf.format(date));

Complete Example:

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class JavaSimpleDateFormatExample {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        // Create Date object.
        Date date = new Date();
        // Specify the desired date format
        String DATE_FORMAT = "yyyy/MM/dd";
        // Create object of SimpleDateFormat and pass the desired date format.
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
        /*
         * Use format method of SimpleDateFormat class to format the date.
         */
        System.out.println("Today is " + sdf.format(date));
    }
}

many ways to change date format

private final String dateTimeFormatPattern = "yyyy/MM/dd";
private final Date now = new Date();  

final DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat(dateTimeFormatPattern);  
final String nowString = format.format(now);   

 final Instant instant = now.toInstant();  
 final DateTimeFormatter formatter =  
      DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(  
         dateTimeFormatPattern).withZone(ZoneId.systemDefault());  
 final String formattedInstance = formatter.format(instant);  

  /* Java 8 needed*/
  LocalDate date = LocalDate.now();
  String text = date.format(formatter);
  LocalDate parsedDate = LocalDate.parse(text, formatter);

SimpleDateFormat newDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
Date myDate = newDateFormat.parse("28/12/2013");
newDateFormat.applyPattern("yyyy/MM/dd")
String myDateString = newDateFormat.format(myDate);

Now MyDate = 2013/12/28

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
sdf.format(new Date());

This should do the trick

This is just Christopher Parker's answer adapted to use the new¹ classes from Java 8:

final DateTimeFormatter OLD_FORMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd/MM/yyyy");
final DateTimeFormatter NEW_FORMATTER = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd");

String oldString = "26/07/2017";
LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse(oldString, OLD_FORMATTER);
String newString = date.format(NEW_FORMATTER);

1 well, not that new anymore, Java 9 should be released soon.