Question

Why does Java make it not obvious how to get the day of the month from a Date object?

.getDay() was deprecated, it is recommended to use Calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH)

This makes little sense to me and I was curious what the rationale behind this deprecation is.

I have a Date object and I just want the day. It’s the most natural thing ever and I can’t invoke it. This design is wrong and therefore my code is not working the way it should:

private String getIngivningsDag() {

    return ""+ingivningsDatum.getDate();
}



private String getIngivningsMonth() {

    return ""+ingivningsDatum.getmonth();
}

private String getIngivningsYear() {

    return ""+ingivningsDatum.getYear();
}

Update

here’s the “solution”:

public String getIngivningsDag() {

    Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
    cal.setTime(ingivningsDatum);
    return cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH)+"";
}

Here’s how it should look simple and good without the design errors of Java and using method parameters instead of strange Class methods and factories:

public String getIngivningsDag() {

    return ingivningsDatum.getDay(Calendar.GREGORIAN, "SE");
}

Answer 1

Not only that method, most of the methods of Date class and some constructors are now deprecated. You have to use Calendar class to get DAY, or MONTH from your Date object.

However, I would suggest you to try out Joda-Time API, that will make you much more happier, because, even Calendar class is a bit inconsistent when it comes to indexing of MONTH, which starts from 0 in it.

But, still, as for your current problem, you can convert your Date object to a Calendar instance using: –

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(date);

System.out.println(cal.get(Calendar.MONTH));