How to get localized short day-in-week name (Mo/Tu/We/Th…)

Question

Can I get localized short day-in-week name (Mo/Tu/We/Th/Fr/Sa/Su for English) in Java?

Answer 1

You can't do it with the Calendar class (unless you write your own), but you can with the Date class. (The two are usually used hand-in-hand).

Here's an example:

import java.util.Date;

public class DateFormatExample {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Calendar nowCal = Calendar.getInstance(); // a Calendar date
    Date now = new Date(nowCal.getTimeInMillis()); // convert to Date
    System.out.printf("localized month name: %tB/%TB\n", now, now); 
    System.out.printf("localized, abbreviated month: %tb/%Tb\n", now, now); 
    System.out.printf("localized day name: %tA/%TA\n", now, now);
    System.out.printf("localized, abbreviated day: %ta/%Ta\n", now, now); 
  }
}

Output:

localized month name: June/JUNE 
localized, abbreviated month: Jun/JUN 
localized day name: Friday/FRIDAY 
localized, abbreviated day: Fri/FRI