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How can I convert a Timestamp into either Date or DateTime object?

I'm retrieving a timestamp object from a database using ResultSet.getTimestamp(), but I'd like an easy way to get the date in the format of MM/DD/YYYY and the time in a format of HH:MM xx. I was tinkering around, it it looks as though I can do such by making use of the Date and/or DateTime objects within Java. Is that the best way to go, or do I even need to convert the timestamp to accomplish this? Any recommendations would be helpful.
....
while(resultSet.next()) {
Timestamp dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Timestamp dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
....
}
....

import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
Date date = new Date(timestamp.getTime());
// S is the millisecond
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy' 'HH:mm:ss:S");
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(timestamp));
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));
}
}

java.sql.Timestamp is a subclass of java.util.Date. So, just upcast it.
Date dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Date dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
Using SimpleDateFormat and creating Joda DateTime should be straightforward from this point on.

java.time
Modern answer: use java.time, the modern Java date and time API, for your date and time work. Back in 2011 it was right to use the Timestamp class, but since JDBC 4.2 it is no longer advised.
For your work we need a time zone and a couple of formatters. We may as well declare them static:
static ZoneId zone = ZoneId.of("America/Marigot");
static DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/uuuu");
static DateTimeFormatter timeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm xx");
Now the code could be for example:
while(resultSet.next()) {
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", OffsetDateTime.class)
.atZoneSameInstant(zone);
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
String dateFormatted = dtStart.format(dateFormatter);
String timeFormatted = dtStart.format(timeFormatter);
System.out.format("Date: %s; time: %s%n", dateFormatted, timeFormatted);
}
Example output (using the time your question was asked):
Date: 09/20/2011; time: 18:13 -0400
In your database timestamp with time zone is recommended for timestamps. If this is what you’ve got, retrieve an OffsetDateTime as I am doing in the code. I am also converting the retrieved value to the user’s time zone before formatting date and time separately. As time zone I supplied America/Marigot as an example, please supply your own. You may also leave out the time zone conversion if you don’t want any, of course.
If the datatype in SQL is a mere timestamp without time zone, retrieve a LocalDateTime instead. For example:
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", LocalDateTime.class)
.atZone(zone);
No matter the details I trust you to do similarly for dtEnd.
I wasn’t sure what you meant by the xx in HH:MM xx. I just left it in the format pattern string, which yields the UTC offset in hours and minutes without colon.
Link: Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.

You can also get DateTime object from timestamp, including your current daylight saving time:
public DateTime getDateTimeFromTimestamp(Long value) {
TimeZone timeZone = TimeZone.getDefault();
long offset = timeZone.getOffset(value);
if (offset < 0) {
value -= offset;
} else {
value += offset;
}
return new DateTime(value);
}

LocalDateTime dtStart = rs.getTimestamp("dtStart").toLocalDateTime();
Converts this Timestamp object to a code LocalDateTime.
The conversion creates a code LocalDateTime that represents the
same year, month, day of month, hours, minutes, seconds and nanos
date-time value as this code Timestamp in the local time zone.
since 1.8

How to get the current date/time in Java [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to get the current date and time
(10 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
What's the best way to get the current date/time in Java?

It depends on what form of date / time you want:
If you want the date / time as a single numeric value, then System.currentTimeMillis() gives you that, expressed as the number of milliseconds after the UNIX epoch (as a Java long). This value is a delta from a UTC time-point, and is independent of the local time-zone1.
If you want the date / time in a form that allows you to access the components (year, month, etc) numerically, you could use one of the following:
new Date() gives you a Date object initialized with the current date / time. The problem is that the Date API methods are mostly flawed ... and deprecated.
Calendar.getInstance() gives you a Calendar object initialized with the current date / time, using the default Locale and TimeZone. Other overloads allow you to use a specific Locale and/or TimeZone. Calendar works ... but the APIs are still cumbersome.
new org.joda.time.DateTime() gives you a Joda-time object initialized with the current date / time, using the default time zone and chronology. There are lots of other Joda alternatives ... too many to describe here. (But note that some people report that Joda time has performance issues.; e.g. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6280829.)
in Java 8, calling java.time.LocalDateTime.now() and java.time.ZonedDateTime.now() will give you representations2 for the current date / time.
Prior to Java 8, most people who know about these things recommended Joda-time as having (by far) the best Java APIs for doing things involving time point and duration calculations.
With Java 8 and later, the standard java.time package is recommended. Joda time is now considered "obsolete", and the Joda maintainers are recommending that people migrate.3.
1 - System.currentTimeMillis() gives the "system" time. While it is normal practice for the system clock to be set to (nominal) UTC, there will be a difference (a delta) between the local UTC clock and true UTC. The size of the delta depends on how well (and how often) the system's clock is synced with UTC.
2 - Note that LocalDateTime doesn't include a time zone. As the javadoc says: "It cannot represent an instant on the time-line without additional information such as an offset or time-zone."
3 - Note: your Java 8 code won't break if you don't migrate, but the Joda codebase may eventually stop getting bug fixes and other patches. As of 2020-02, an official "end of life" for Joda has not been announced, and the Joda APIs have not been marked as Deprecated.

(Attention: only for use with Java versions <8. For Java 8+ check other replies.)
If you just need to output a time stamp in format YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM.SS (very frequent case) then here's the way to do it:
String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());

If you want the current date as String, try this:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(date));
or
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal.getTime()));
http://www.mkyong.com/java/java-how-to-get-current-date-time-date-and-calender/

tl;dr
Instant.now() // Capture the current moment in UTC, with a resolution of nanoseconds. Returns a `Instant` object.
… or …
ZonedDateTime.now( // Capture the current moment as seen in…
ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) // … the wall-clock time used by the people of a particular region (a time zone).
) // Returns a `ZonedDateTime` object.
java.time
A few of the Answers mention that java.time classes are the modern replacement for the troublesome old legacy date-time classes bundled with the earliest versions of Java. Below is a bit more information.
Time zone
The other Answers fail to explain how a time zone is crucial in determining the current date and time. For any given moment, the date and the time vary around the globe by zone. For example, a few minutes after midnight is a new day in Paris France while still being “yesterday” in Montréal Québec.
Instant
Much of your business logic and data storage/exchange should be done in UTC, as a best practice.
To get the current moment in UTC with a resolution in nanoseconds, use Instant class. Conventional computer hardware clocks are limited in their accuracy, so the current moment may be captured in milliseconds or microseconds rather than nanoseconds.
Instant instant = Instant.now();
ZonedDateTime
You can adjust that Instant into other time zones. Apply a ZoneId object to get a ZonedDateTime.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
ZonedDateTime zdt = instant.atZone( z );
We can skip the Instant and get the current ZonedDateTime directly.
ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.now( z );
Always pass that optional time zone argument. If omitted, your JVM’s current default time zone is applied. The default can change at any moment, even during runtime. Do not subject your app to an externality out of your control. Always specify the desired/expected time zone.
ZonedDateTime do_Not_Do_This = ZonedDateTime.now(); // BAD - Never rely implicitly on the current default time zone.
You can later extract an Instant from the ZonedDateTime.
Instant instant = zdt.toInstant();
Always use an Instant or ZonedDateTime rather than a LocalDateTime when you want an actual moment on the timeline. The Local… types purposely have no concept of time zone so they represent only a rough idea of a possible moment. To get an actual moment you must assign a time zone to transform the Local… types into a ZonedDateTime and thereby make it meaningful.
LocalDate
The LocalDate class represents a date-only value without time-of-day and without time zone.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z ); // Always pass a time zone.
Strings
To generate a String representing the date-time value, simply call toString on the java.time classes for the standard ISO 8601 formats.
String output = myLocalDate.toString(); // 2016-09-23
… or …
String output = zdt.toString(); // 2016-09-23T12:34:56.789+03:00[America/Montreal]
The ZonedDateTime class extends the standard format by wisely appending the name of the time zone in square brackets.
For other formats, search Stack Overflow for many Questions and Answers on the DateTimeFormatter class.
Avoid LocalDateTime
Contrary to the comment on the Question by RamanSB, you should not use LocalDateTime class for the current date-time.
The LocalDateTime purposely lacks any time zone or offset-from-UTC information. So, this is not appropriate when you are tracking a specific moment on the timeline. Certainly not appropriate for capturing the current moment.
A LocalDateTime has only a date and a time-of-day such as "noon on 23rd of January 2020", but we have no idea if that is noon in Tokyo Japan or noon in Toledo Ohio US, two different moments many hours apart.
The “Local” wording is counter-intuitive. It means any locality rather than any one specific locality. For example Christmas this year starts at midnight on the 25th of December: 2017-12-25T00:00:00, to be represented as a LocalDateTime. But this means midnight at various points around the globe at different times. Midnight happens first in Kiribati, later in New Zealand, hours more later in India, and so on, with several more hours passing before Christmas begins in France when the kids in Canada are still awaiting that day. Each one of these Christmas-start points would be represented as a separate ZonedDateTime.
From outside your system
If you cannot trust your system clock, see Java: Get current Date and Time from Server not System clock and my Answer.
java.time.Clock
To harness an alternate supplier of the current moment, write a subclass of the abstract java.time.Clock class.
You can pass your Clock implementation as an argument to the various java.time methods. For example, Instant.now( clock ).
Instant instant = Instant.now( yourClockGoesHere ) ;
For testing purposes, note the alternate implementations of Clock available statically from Clock itself: fixed, offset, tick, and more.
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.
To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.
The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.
You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.
Where to obtain the java.time classes?
Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, Java SE 11, and later - 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
Most of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
Android
Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
For earlier Android (<26), the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). 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.

In Java 8 it is:
LocalDateTime.now()
and in case you need time zone info:
ZonedDateTime.now()
and in case you want to print fancy formatted string:
System.out.println(ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.RFC_1123_DATE_TIME))

Just create a Date object...
import java.util.Date;
Date date = new Date();

// 2015/09/27 15:07:53
System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );
// 15:07:53
System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );
// 09/28/2015
System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()));
// 20150928_161823
System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );
// Mon Sep 28 16:24:28 CEST 2015
System.out.println( Calendar.getInstance().getTime() );
// Mon Sep 28 16:24:51 CEST 2015
System.out.println( new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()) );
// Mon Sep 28
System.out.println( new Date().toString().substring(0, 10) );
// 2015-09-28
System.out.println( new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis()) );
// 14:32:26
Date d = new Date();
System.out.println( (d.getTime() / 1000 / 60 / 60) % 24 + ":" + (d.getTime() / 1000 / 60) % 60 + ":" + (d.getTime() / 1000) % 60 );
// 2015-09-28 17:12:35.584
System.out.println( new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis()) );
// Java 8
// 2015-09-28T16:16:23.308+02:00[Europe/Belgrade]
System.out.println( ZonedDateTime.now() );
// Mon, 28 Sep 2015 16:16:23 +0200
System.out.println( ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.RFC_1123_DATE_TIME) );
// 2015-09-28
System.out.println( LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("Europe/Paris")) ); // rest zones id in ZoneId class
// 16
System.out.println( LocalTime.now().getHour() );
// 2015-09-28T16:16:23.315
System.out.println( LocalDateTime.now() );

Use:
String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
System.out.println(timeStamp );
(It's working.)

There are many different methods:
System.currentTimeMillis()
Date
Calendar

Create object of date and simply print it down.
Date d = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.print(d);

java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();
It's automatically populated with the time it's instantiated.

Similar to above solutions. But I always find myself looking for this chunk of code:
Date date=Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
System.out.println(date);

For java.util.Date, just create a new Date()
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(date)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43
For java.util.Calendar, uses Calendar.getInstance()
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43
For java.time.LocalDateTime, uses LocalDateTime.now()
DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
LocalDateTime now = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println(dtf.format(now)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43
For java.time.LocalDate, uses LocalDate.now()
DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd");
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
System.out.println(dtf.format(localDate)); //2016/11/16
Reference: https://www.mkyong.com/java/java-how-to-get-current-date-time-date-and-calender/

1st Understand the java.util.Date class
1.1 How to obtain current Date
import java.util.Date;
class Demostration{
public static void main(String[]args){
Date date = new Date(); // date object
System.out.println(date); // Try to print the date object
}
}
1.2 How to use getTime() method
import java.util.Date;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[]args){
Date date = new Date();
long timeInMilliSeconds = date.getTime();
System.out.println(timeInMilliSeconds);
}
}
This will return the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT for time comparison purposes.
1.3 How to format time using SimpleDateFormat class
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
class Demostration{
public static void main(String[]args){
Date date=new Date();
DateFormat dateFormat=new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
String formattedDate=dateFormat.format(date);
System.out.println(formattedDate);
}
}
Also try using different format patterns like "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss" and select desired pattern. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html
2nd Understand the java.util.Calendar class
2.1 Using Calendar Class to obtain current time stamp
import java.util.Calendar;
class Demostration{
public static void main(String[]args){
Calendar calendar=Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(calendar.getTime());
}
}
2.2 Try using setTime and other set methods for set calendar to different date.
Source: http://javau91.blogspot.com/

Have you looked at java.util.Date? It is exactly what you want.

Java 8 or above
LocalDateTime.now() and ZonedDateTime.now()

I find this to be the best way:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal.getTime())); // 2014/08/06 16:00:22

Have a look at the Date class. There's also the newer Calendar class which is the preferred method of doing many date / time operations (a lot of the methods on Date have been deprecated.)
If you just want the current date, then either create a new Date object or call Calendar.getInstance();.

As mentioned the basic Date() can do what you need in terms of getting the current time. In my recent experience working heavily with Java dates there are a lot of oddities with the built in classes (as well as deprecation of many of the Date class methods). One oddity that stood out to me was that months are 0 index based which from a technical standpoint makes sense, but in real terms can be very confusing.
If you are only concerned with the current date that should suffice - however if you intend to do a lot of manipulating/calculations with dates it could be very beneficial to use a third party library (so many exist because many Java developers have been unsatisfied with the built in functionality).
I second Stephen C's recommendation as I have found Joda-time to be very useful in simplifying my work with dates, it is also very well documented and you can find many useful examples throughout the web. I even ended up writing a static wrapper class (as DateUtils) which I use to consolidate and simplify all of my common date manipulation.

Use:
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy:MM:dd::HH:mm:ss");
System.out.println(sdf.format(System.currentTimeMillis()));
The print statement will print the time when it is called and not when the SimpleDateFormat was created. So it can be called repeatedly without creating any new objects.

System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy:MM:dd - hh:mm:ss a").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );
//2018:02:10 - 05:04:20 PM
date/time with AM/PM

New Data-Time API is introduced with the dawn of Java 8. This is due
to following issues that were caused in the old data-time API.
Difficult to handle time zone : need to write lot of code to deal with
time zones.
Not Thread Safe : java.util.Date is not thread safe.
So have a look around with Java 8
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalTime;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.Month;
public class DataTimeChecker {
public static void main(String args[]) {
DataTimeChecker dateTimeChecker = new DataTimeChecker();
dateTimeChecker.DateTime();
}
public void DateTime() {
// Get the current date and time
LocalDateTime currentTime = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println("Current DateTime: " + currentTime);
LocalDate date1 = currentTime.toLocalDate();
System.out.println("Date : " + date1);
Month month = currentTime.getMonth();
int day = currentTime.getDayOfMonth();
int seconds = currentTime.getSecond();
System.out.println("Month : " + month);
System.out.println("Day : " + day);
System.out.println("Seconds : " + seconds);
LocalDateTime date2 = currentTime.withDayOfMonth(17).withYear(2018);
System.out.println("Date : " + date2);
//Prints 17 May 2018
LocalDate date3 = LocalDate.of(2018, Month.MAY, 17);
System.out.println("Date : " + date3);
//Prints 04 hour 45 minutes
LocalTime date4 = LocalTime.of(4, 45);
System.out.println("Date : " + date4);
// Convert to a String
LocalTime date5 = LocalTime.parse("20:15:30");
System.out.println("Date : " + date5);
}
}
Output of the coding above :
Current DateTime: 2018-05-17T04:40:34.603
Date : 2018-05-17
Month : MAY
Day : 17
Seconds : 34
Date : 2018-05-17T04:40:34.603
Date : 2018-05-17
Date : 04:45
Date : 20:15:30

I created this methods, it works for me...
public String GetDay() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd")));
}
public String GetNameOfTheDay() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getDayOfWeek());
}
public String GetMonth() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM")));
}
public String GetNameOfTheMonth() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getMonth());
}
public String GetYear() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy")));
}
public boolean isLeapYear(long year) {
return Year.isLeap(year);
}
public String GetDate() {
return GetDay() + "/" + GetMonth() + "/" + GetYear();
}
public String Get12HHour() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("hh")));
}
public String Get24HHour() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getHour());
}
public String GetMinutes() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("mm")));
}
public String GetSeconds() {
return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("ss")));
}
public String Get24HTime() {
return Get24HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes();
}
public String Get24HFullTime() {
return Get24HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes() + ":" + GetSeconds();
}
public String Get12HTime() {
return Get12HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes();
}
public String Get12HFullTime() {
return Get12HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes() + ":" + GetSeconds();
}

import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
public class DateDemo {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Date dNow = new Date( );
SimpleDateFormat ft =
new SimpleDateFormat ("E yyyy.MM.dd 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz");
System.out.println("Current Date: " + ft.format(dNow));
}
}
you can use date for fet current data. so using SimpleDateFormat get format

just try this code:
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
public class CurrentTimeDateCalendar {
public static void getCurrentTimeUsingDate() {
Date date = new Date();
String strDateFormat = "hh:mm:ss a";
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(strDateFormat);
String formattedDate= dateFormat.format(date);
System.out.println("Current time of the day using Date - 12 hour format: " + formattedDate);
}
public static void getCurrentTimeUsingCalendar() {
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
Date date=cal.getTime();
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
String formattedDate=dateFormat.format(date);
System.out.println("Current time of the day using Calendar - 24 hour format: "+ formattedDate);
}
}
which the sample output is:
Current time of the day using Date - 12 hour format: 11:13:01 PM
Current time of the day using Calendar - 24 hour format: 23:13:01
more information on:
Getting Current Date Time in Java

Current Date using java 8:
First, let's use java.time.LocalDate to get the current system date:
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
To get the date in any other timezone we can use LocalDate.now(ZoneId):
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("GMT+02:30"));
We can also use java.time.LocalDateTime to get an instance of LocalDate:
LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
LocalDate localDate = localDateTime.toLocalDate();

You can use Date object and format by yourself. It is hard to format and need more codes, as a example,
Date dateInstance = new Date();
int year = dateInstance.getYear()+1900;//Returns:the year represented by this date, minus 1900.
int date = dateInstance.getDate();
int month = dateInstance.getMonth();
int day = dateInstance.getDay();
int hours = dateInstance.getHours();
int min = dateInstance.getMinutes();
int sec = dateInstance.getSeconds();
String dayOfWeek = "";
switch(day){
case 0:
dayOfWeek = "Sunday";
break;
case 1:
dayOfWeek = "Monday";
break;
case 2:
dayOfWeek = "Tuesday";
break;
case 3:
dayOfWeek = "Wednesday";
break;
case 4:
dayOfWeek = "Thursday";
break;
case 5:
dayOfWeek = "Friday";
break;
case 6:
dayOfWeek = "Saturday";
break;
}
System.out.println("Date: " + year +"-"+ month + "-" + date + " "+ dayOfWeek);
System.out.println("Time: " + hours +":"+ min + ":" + sec);
output:
Date: 2017-6-23 Sunday
Time: 14:6:20
As you can see this is the worst way you can do it and according to oracle documentation it is deprecated.
Oracle doc:
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.
So alternatively, you can use Calendar class,
Calendar.YEAR;
//and lot more
To get current time, you can use:
Calendar rightNow = Calendar.getInstance();
Doc:
Like other locale-sensitive classes, Calendar provides a class method,
getInstance, for getting a generally useful object of this type.
Calendar's getInstance method returns a Calendar object whose calendar
fields have been initialized with the current date and time
Below code for to get only date
Date rightNow = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
System.out.println(rightNow);
Also, Calendar class have Subclasses. GregorianCalendar is a one of them and concrete subclass of Calendar and provides the standard calendar system used by most of the world.
Example using GregorianCalendar:
Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar();
int hours = cal.get(Calendar.HOUR);
int minute = cal.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int second = cal.get(Calendar.SECOND);
int ap = cal.get(Calendar.AM_PM);
String amVSpm;
if(ap == 0){
amVSpm = "AM";
}else{
amVSpm = "PM";
}
String timer = hours + "-" + minute + "-" + second + " " +amVSpm;
System.out.println(timer);
You can use SimpleDateFormat, simple and quick way to format date:
String pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);
String date = simpleDateFormat.format(new Date());
System.out.println(date);
Read this Jakob Jenkov tutorial: Java SimpleDateFormat.
As others mentioned, when we need to do manipulation from dates, we didn't had simple and best way or we couldn't satisfied built in classes, APIs.
As a example, When we need to get different between two dates, when we need to compare two dates(there is in-built method also for this) and many more. We had to use third party libraries. One of the good and popular one is Joda Time.
Also read:
How to get properly current date and time in Joda-Time?
JodaTime - how to get current time in UTC
Examples for JodaTime.
Download Joda
.
The happiest thing is now(in java 8), no one need to download and use libraries for any reasons. A simple example to get current date & time in Java 8,
LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();
System.out.println(localTime);
//with time zone
LocalTime localTimeWtZone = LocalTime.now(ZoneId.of("GMT+02:30"));
System.out.println(localTimeWtZone);
One of the good blog post to read about Java 8 date.
And keep remeber to find out more about Java date and time because there is lot more ways and/or useful ways that you can get/use.
Oracle tutorials for date & time.
Oracle tutorials for formatter.
Lesson: Standard Calendar.
EDIT:
According to #BasilBourque comment, 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.

I'll go ahead and throw this answer in because it is all I needed when I had the same question:
Date currentDate = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
currentDate is now your current date in a Java Date object.

Java program to get the current date without timestamp

I need a Java program to get the current date without a timestamp:
Date d = new Date();
gives me date and timestamp.
But I need only the date, without a timestamp. I use this date to compare with another date object that does not have a timestamp.
On printing
System.out.println("Current Date : " + d)
of d it should print May 11 2010 - 00:00:00.

A java.util.Date object is a kind of timestamp - it contains a number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. So you can't use a standard Date object to contain just a day / month / year, without a time.
As far as I know, there's no really easy way to compare dates by only taking the date (and not the time) into account in the standard Java API. You can use class Calendar and clear the hour, minutes, seconds and milliseconds:
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.clear(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
cal.clear(Calendar.AM_PM);
cal.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
cal.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
cal.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
Do the same with another Calendar object that contains the date that you want to compare it to, and use the after() or before() methods to do the comparison.
As explained into the Javadoc of java.util.Calendar.clear(int field):
The HOUR_OF_DAY, HOUR and AM_PM fields are handled independently and the the resolution rule for the time of day is applied. Clearing one of the fields doesn't reset the hour of day value of this Calendar. Use set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) to reset the hour value.
edit - The answer above is from 2010; in Java 8, there is a new date and time API in the package java.time which is much more powerful and useful than the old java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar classes. Use the new date and time classes instead of the old ones.

You could always use apache commons' DateUtils class. It has the static method isSameDay() which "Checks if two date objects are on the same day ignoring time."
static boolean isSameDay(Date date1, Date date2)

Use DateFormat to solve this problem:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
DateFormat dateFormat2 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy");
print(dateFormat.format(new Date()); // will print like 2014-02-20
print(dateFormat2.format(new Date()); // will print like 02-20-2014

I did as follows and it worked: (Current date without timestamp)
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
Date today = dateFormat.parse(dateFormat.format(new Date()));

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM dd yyyy");
java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();
System.out.println("Current Date : " + dateFormat.format(date));

You can get by this date:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
print(dateFormat.format(new Date());

You could use
// Format a string containing a date.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import static java.util.Calendar.*;
Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
String s = String.format("Duke's Birthday: %1$tm %1$te,%1$tY", c);
// -> s == "Duke's Birthday: May 23, 1995"
Have a look at the Formatter API documentation.

The accepted answer by Jesper is correct but now outdated. The java.util.Date and .Calendar classes are notoriously troublesome. Avoid them.
java.time
Instead use the java.time framework, built into Java 8 and later, back-ported to Java 6 & 7 and further adapted to Android.
If you truly do not care about time-of-day and time zones, use LocalDate in the java.time framework ().
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of( 2014 , 5 , 6 );
Today
A time zone is crucial in determining a date. For any given moment, the date varies around the globe by zone. For example, a few minutes after midnight in Paris France is a new day while still “yesterday” in Montréal Québec.
If no time zone is specified, the JVM implicitly applies its current default time zone. That default may change at any moment during runtime(!), so your results may vary. Better to specify your desired/expected time zone explicitly as an argument. If you want to use the JVM’s current default time zone, make your intention clear by calling ZoneId.systemDefault(). If critical, confirm the zone with your user.
Specify a proper time zone name in the format of Continent/Region, such as America/Montreal, Africa/Casablanca, or Pacific/Auckland. Never use the 2-4 letter abbreviation such as EST or IST as they are not true time zones, not standardized, and not even unique(!).
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) ;
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z ) ;
If you want to use the JVM’s current default time zone, ask for it and pass as an argument. If omitted, the code becomes ambiguous to read in that we do not know for certain if you intended to use the default or if you, like so many programmers, were unaware of the issue.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.systemDefault() ; // Get JVM’s current default time zone.
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z ) ;
Moment
If you care about specific moments, specific points on the timeline, do not use LocalDate. If you care about the date as seen through the wall-clock time used by the people of a certain region, do not use LocalDate.
Be aware that if you have any chance of needing to deal with other time zones or UTC, this is the wrong way to go. Naïve programmers tend to think they do not need time zones when in fact they do.
Strings
Call toString to generate a string in standard ISO 8601 format.
String output = localDate.toString();
2014-05-06
For other formats, search Stack Overflow for DateTimeFormatter class.
Joda-Time
Though now supplanted by java.time, you can use the similar LocalDate class in the Joda-Time library (the inspiration for java.time).
LocalDate localDate = new LocalDate( 2014, 5, 6 );

Also you can use apache commons lib DateUtils.truncate():
Date now = new Date();
Date truncated = DateUtils.truncate(now, Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
Time will be set to 00:00:00 so you can work with this date or print it formatted:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(now); // 2010-05-11 11:32:47
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(truncated); // 2010-05-11 00:00:00

private static final DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
private static Date NOW = new Date();
static {
try {
NOW = df1.parse(df1.format(new Date()));
} catch (ParseException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

I think this will work. Use Calendar to manipulate time fields (reset them to zero), then get the Date from the Calendar.
Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
c.clear( Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY );
c.clear( Calendar.MINUTE );
c.clear( Calendar.SECOND );
c.clear( Calendar.MILLISECOND );
Date today = c.getTime();
Or do the opposite. Put the date you want to compare to in a calendar and compare calendar dates
Date compareToDate; // assume this is set before going in.
Calendar today = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
Calendar compareTo = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
compareTo.setTime( compareToDate );
if( today.get( Calendar.YEAR ) == compareTo.get( Calendar.YEAR ) &&
today.get( Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR ) == compareTo.get( Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR ) ) {
// They are the same day!
}

Here's an inelegant way of doing it quick without additional dependencies.
You could just use java.sql.Date, which extends java.util.Date although for comparisons you will have to compare the Strings.
java.sql.Date dt1 = new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
String dt1Text = dt1.toString();
System.out.println("Current Date1 : " + dt1Text);
Thread.sleep(2000);
java.sql.Date dt2 = new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
String dt2Text = dt2.toString();
System.out.println("Current Date2 : " + dt2Text);
boolean dateResult = dt1.equals(dt2);
System.out.println("Date comparison is " + dateResult);
boolean stringResult = dt1Text.equals(dt2Text);
System.out.println("String comparison is " + stringResult);
Output:
Current Date1 : 2010-05-10
Current Date2 : 2010-05-10
Date comparison is false
String comparison is true

If you really want to use a Date instead for a Calendar for comparison, this is the shortest piece of code you could use:
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
Date d = new GregorianCalendar(c.get(Calendar.YEAR),
c.get(Calendar.MONTH),
c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH)).getTime();
This way you make sure the hours/minute/second/millisecond values are blank.

I did as follows and it worked:
calendar1.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.AM_PM, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
Date date1 = calendar1.getTime(); // Convert it to date
Do this for other instances to which you want to compare. This logic worked for me; I had to compare the dates whether they are equal or not, but you can do different comparisons (before, after, equals, etc.)

I was looking for the same solution and the following worked for me.
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
calendar.clear(Calendar.HOUR);
calendar.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
calendar.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
calendar.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
Date today = calendar.getTime();
Please note that I am using calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) for HOUR_OF_DAY instead of using the clear method, because it is suggested in Calendar.clear method's javadocs as the following
The HOUR_OF_DAY, HOUR and AM_PM fields are handled independently and
the the resolution rule for the time of day is applied. Clearing one
of the fields doesn't reset the hour of day value of this Calendar.
Use set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) to reset the hour value.
With the above posted solution I get output as
Wed Sep 11 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Using clear method for HOUR_OF_DAY resets hour at 12 when executing after 12PM or 00 when executing before 12PM.

Here is my code for get only date:
Calendar c=Calendar.getInstance();
DateFormat dm = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();
System.out.println("current date is : " + dm.format(date));

Here is full Example of it.But you have to cast Sting back to Date.
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
//TODO OutPut should LIKE in this format MM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS
public class TestDateExample {
public static void main(String args[]) throws ParseException {
SimpleDateFormat changeFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS");
Date thisDate = new Date();//changeFormat.parse("10 07 2012");
System.out.println("Current Date : " + thisDate);
changeFormat.format(thisDate);
System.out.println("----------------------------");
System.out.println("After applying formating :");
String strDateOutput = changeFormat.format(thisDate);
System.out.println(strDateOutput);
}
}

How to get the current date and time of your timezone in Java?

I have my app hosted in a London Server. I am in Madrid, Spain. So the timezone is -2 hours.
How can I obtain the current date / time with my time zone.
Date curr_date = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
e.g.
Date curr_date = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis("MAD_TIMEZONE"));
With Joda-Time
DateTimeZone zone = DateTimeZone.forID("Europe/Madrid");
DateTime dt = new DateTime(zone);
int day = dt.getDayOfMonth();
int year = dt.getYear();
int month = dt.getMonthOfYear();
int hours = dt.getHourOfDay();
int minutes = dt.getMinuteOfHour();

Date is always UTC-based... or time-zone neutral, depending on how you want to view it. A Date only represents a point in time; it is independent of time zone, just a number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch. There's no notion of a "local instance of Date." Use Date in conjunction with Calendar and/or TimeZone.getDefault() to use a "local" time zone. Use TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Madrid") to get the Madrid time zone.
... or use Joda Time, which tends to make the whole thing clearer, IMO. In Joda Time you'd use a DateTime value, which is an instant in time in a particular calendar system and time zone.
In Java 8 you'd use java.time.ZonedDateTime, which is the Java 8 equivalent of Joda Time's DateTime.

As Jon Skeet already said, java.util.Date does not have a time zone. A Date object represents a number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 12:00 AM, UTC. It does not contain time zone information.
When you format a Date object into a string, for example by using SimpleDateFormat, then you can set the time zone on the DateFormat object to let it know in which time zone you want to display the date and time:
Date date = new Date();
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
// Use Madrid's time zone to format the date in
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Madrid"));
System.out.println("Date and time in Madrid: " + df.format(date));
If you want the local time zone of the computer that your program is running on, use:
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());

using Calendar is simple:
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Madrid"));
Date currentDate = calendar.getTime();

With the java.time classes built into Java 8 and later:
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalDateTime localNow = LocalDateTime.now(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Madrid").toZoneId());
System.out.println(localNow);
// Prints current time of given zone without zone information : 2016-04-28T15:41:17.611
ZonedDateTime zoneNow = ZonedDateTime.now(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Madrid").toZoneId());
System.out.println(zoneNow);
// Prints current time of given zone with zone information : 2016-04-28T15:41:17.627+02:00[Europe/Madrid]
}

You would use JodaTime for that. Java.util.Date is very limited regarding TimeZone.

Check this may be helpful. Works fine for me. Code also covered daylight savings
TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("Asia/Shanghai");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
// If needed in hours rather than milliseconds
int LocalOffSethrs = (int) ((cal.getTimeZone().getRawOffset()) *(2.77777778 /10000000));
int ChinaOffSethrs = (int) ((tz.getRawOffset()) *(2.77777778 /10000000));
int dts = cal.getTimeZone().getDSTSavings();
System.out.println("Local Time Zone : " + cal.getTimeZone().getDisplayName());
System.out.println("Local Day Light Time Saving : " + dts);
System.out.println("China Time : " + tz.getRawOffset());
System.out.println("Local Offset Time from GMT: " + LocalOffSethrs);
System.out.println("China Offset Time from GMT: " + ChinaOffSethrs);
// Adjust to GMT
cal.add(Calendar.MILLISECOND,-(cal.getTimeZone().getRawOffset()));
// Adjust to Daylight Savings
cal.add(Calendar.MILLISECOND, - cal.getTimeZone().getDSTSavings());
// Adjust to Offset
cal.add(Calendar.MILLISECOND, tz.getRawOffset());
Date dt = new Date(cal.getTimeInMillis());
System.out.println("After adjusting offset Acctual China Time :" + dt);

I couldn't get it to work using Calendar. You have to use DateFormat
//Wednesday, July 20, 2011 3:54:44 PM PDT
DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL, DateFormat.FULL);
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST"));
final String dateTimeString = df.format(new Date());
//Wednesday, July 20, 2011
df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.FULL);
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST"));
final String dateString = df.format(new Date());
//3:54:44 PM PDT
df = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL);
df.setTimeZone(Timezone.getTimeZone("PST"));
final String timeString = df.format(new Date());

java.time
The java.util Date-Time API and their formatting API, SimpleDateFormat are outdated and error-prone. It is recommended to stop using them completely and switch to the modern Date-Time API*.
Also, quoted below is a notice from the home page of Joda-Time:
Note that from Java SE 8 onwards, users are asked to migrate to java.time (JSR-310) - a core part of the JDK which replaces this project.
Solution using java.time, the modern Date-Time API: If you want to get just date and time (and not the timezone information), you can use LocalDateTime.#now(ZoneId).
The non-parametrized overloaded, LocalDateTime.#now returns the current Date-Time using the JVM's timezone. It is equivalent to using LocalDateTime.now(ZoneId.systemDefault()).
Demo:
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneId;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
LocalDateTime now = LocalDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Europe/Madrid"));
System.out.println(now);
}
}
Output from a sample run:
2021-07-25T15:54:31.574424
ONLINE DEMO
If you want to get the date and time along with the timezone information, you can use ZonedDateTime.#now(ZoneId). It's non-parametrized variant behave in the same manner as described above.
Demo:
import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ZonedDateTime now = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Europe/Madrid"));
System.out.println(now);
}
}
Output from a sample run:
2021-07-25T16:08:54.741773+02:00[Europe/Madrid]
ONLINE DEMO
Learn more about the modern Date-Time API from Trail: Date Time.
* For any reason, if you have to stick to Java 6 or Java 7, you can use ThreeTen-Backport which backports most of the java.time functionality to Java 6 & 7. If you are working for an Android project and your Android API level is still not compliant with Java-8, check Java 8+ APIs available through desugaring and How to use ThreeTenABP in Android Project.

You can try ZonedDateTime.now() . You can find it in package java.time
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
public class Temp {
public static void main(String args[]) {
System.out.println(ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Europe/Madrid")));
}
}
Output (I'm based in kolkata,India):
2021-09-17T14:46:14.341+02:00[Europe/Madrid]

To get date and time of your zone.
Date date = new Date();
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/YYYY HH:mm a");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());
df.format(date);

To get the date to a variable .
public static String getCurrentDate(){
final ZonedDateTime now = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));
String Temporal= DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd").format(now);
String today= LocalDate.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(Temporal));
return today;
}

Here are some steps for finding Time for your zone:
Date now = new Date();
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
System.out.println("timeZone.......-->>>>>>"+df.format(now));

Date in 24 hrs format
Output:14/02/2020 19:56:49 PM
Date date = new Date();
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss aa");
dateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
System.out.println("date is: "+dateFormat.format(date));
Date in 12 hrs format
Output:14/02/2020 07:57:11 PM
Date date = new Date();`enter code here`
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss aa");
dateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
System.out.println("date is: "+dateFormat.format(date));

DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL, DateFormat.FULL);
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST"));
final String dateTimeString = df.format(new Date());

What is the best way to parse a date in MM/DD/YY format and adjust it to the current / previous century?

One of our customers wants to be able to enter a date with only 2 digits for the year component. The date will be in the past, so we want it to work for the previous century if the 2 digit year is after the current year, but work for the current century if the 2 digit year is equal to or less than the current year.
as of today 10/30/2008
01/01/01 = 01/01/2001
01/01/09 = 01/01/1909
This is a strange requirement, and I solved the problem, I just don't like my solution.
It feels like there is a better way to do this.
Thanks for the help.
public static String stupidDate(String dateString)
{
String twoDigitYear = StringUtils.right(dateString, 2);
String newDate = StringUtils.left(dateString, dateString.length() - 2);
int year = NumberUtils.toInt(twoDigitYear);
Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
int centuryInt = c.get(Calendar.YEAR) - year;
newDate = newDate + StringUtils.left(Integer.toString(centuryInt), 2) + twoDigitYear;
return newDate;
}

Groovy script (easy enough to throw into java) demonstrating the point #bobince made about SimpleDateFormat.
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat('MM/dd/yy')
SimpleDateFormat fmt = new SimpleDateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd')
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance()
cal.add(Calendar.YEAR, -100)
sdf.set2DigitYearStart(cal.getTime())
dates = ['01/01/01', '10/30/08','01/01/09']
dates.each {String d ->
println fmt.format(sdf.parse(d))
}
Yields
2001-01-01
2008-10-30
1909-01-01

SimpleDateFormat already does two-digit year parsing for you, using the two-letter ‘yy’ format. (It'll still allow four digits, obviously.)
By default it uses now-80→now+20, so it's not exactly the same rule you propose, but it's reasonable and standardised (in the Java world at least), and can be overridden using set2DigitYearStart() if you want.
DateFormat informat= new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy");
DateFormat outformat= new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
return outformat.format(informat.parse(dateString));
In the longer term, try to migrate to ISO8601 date formatting (yyyy-MM-dd), because MM/dd/yy is approximately the worst possible date format and is bound to cause problems eventually.

How about this:
public static String anEasierStupidDateWithNoStringParsing(String dateString) {
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
//handling ParseExceptions is an exercise left to the reader!
Date date = df.parse(dateString);
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(date);
Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();
if (cal.after(now)) {
cal.add(Calendar.YEAR, -100);
}
return cal;
}
In other words, let SimpleDateFormat parse the String and just adjust the year to be the previous century if SimpleDateFormat (which has it's own rules for interpreting year strings) returns a date that is after the current date.
This would guarantee that all dates returned are in the past. However, it doesn't account for any dates that might be parsed as before this past century - for example, with the format MM/dd/yyyy, a date string like "01/11/12" parses to Jan 11, 12 A.D.

If Joda Time is an option:
String inputDate = "01/01/08";
// assuming U.S. style date, since it's not clear from your original question
DateTimeFormatter parser = DateTimeFormat.forPattern("MM/dd/yy");
DateTime dateTime = parser.parseDateTime(inputDate);
// if after current time
if (dateTime.isAfter(new DateTime())) {
dateTime = dateTime.minus(Years.ONE);
}
return dateTime.toString("MM/dd/yyyy");
I know Joda Time isn't part of Java SE, and as I've said in another thread, I usually do not condone using a third-party library when there's a Java library that does the same thing. However, the person who is developing Joda Time is also leading JSR310 - the Date and Time API that'll make it into Java 7. So I Joda Time is basically going to be in future Java releases.

The accepted answer uses legacy date-time API which was the correct thing to do in 2008 when the question was asked. In March 2014, java.time API supplanted the error-prone legacy date-time API. Since then, it has been strongly recommended to use this modern date-time API.
java.time API
You can put optional patterns between DateTimeFormatterBuilder#optionalStart and DateTimeFormatterBuilder#optionalEnd and create a formatter which can parse a date string with either a four-digit year or a two-digit year.
Using the DateTimeFormatterBuilder#appendValueReduced, you can specify a base value for the year as per your requirement.
Demo:
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Year;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoField;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.stream.Stream;
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
DateTimeFormatter parser = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
.appendPattern("M/d/")
.optionalStart()
.appendPattern("uuuu")
.optionalEnd()
.optionalStart()
.appendValueReduced(ChronoField.YEAR, 2, 2, Year.now().minusYears(100).getValue())
.optionalEnd()
.toFormatter(Locale.ENGLISH);
// Test
Stream.of(
"1/2/2022",
"01/2/2022",
"1/02/2022",
"01/02/2022",
"1/2/22",
"1/2/21",
"1/2/20",
"1/2/23",
"1/2/24"
)
.map(s -> LocalDate.parse(s, parser))
.forEach(System.out::println);
}
}
Output:
2022-01-02
2022-01-02
2022-01-02
2022-01-02
1922-01-02
2021-01-02
2020-01-02
1923-01-02
1924-01-02
Note that the dates with a two-digit year greater than the current year are parsed into a LocalDate with the last century.
How to switch from the legacy to the modern date-time API?
You can switch from the legacy to the modern date-time API using Date#toInstant on a java-util-date instance. Once you have an Instant, you can easily obtain other date-time types of java.time API. An Instant represents a moment in time and is independent of a time-zone i.e. it represents a date-time in UTC (often displayed as Z which stands for Zulu-time and has a ZoneOffset of +00:00).
Demo:
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Date date = new Date();
Instant instant = date.toInstant();
System.out.println(instant);
ZonedDateTime zdt = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));
System.out.println(zdt);
OffsetDateTime odt = instant.atOffset(ZoneOffset.of("+05:30"));
System.out.println(odt);
// Alternatively, using time-zone
odt = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata")).toOffsetDateTime();
System.out.println(odt);
LocalDateTime ldt = LocalDateTime.ofInstant(instant, ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));
System.out.println(ldt);
// Alternatively,
ldt = instant.atZone(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata")).toLocalDateTime();
System.out.println(ldt);
}
}
Output:
2022-11-20T20:32:42.823Z
2022-11-21T02:02:42.823+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]
2022-11-21T02:02:42.823+05:30
2022-11-21T02:02:42.823+05:30
2022-11-21T02:02:42.823
2022-11-21T02:02:42.823
Learn more about the modern Date-Time API from Trail: Date Time.

Date deliverDate = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yy").parse(deliverDateString);
String dateString2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").format(deliverDate);
Working for me.