Java DateFormat getInstance() Method with Examples

The getInstance() method of DateFormat class will return the date and time formatter with the default formatting style for the default locale.

Syntax:

public static final DateFormat getInstance()

Parameter: This method doesn’t require any parameters.

Return value: This method will return the date format in a particular format.

Example 1:

Java

// Java program to illustrate
// GetInstance() method

// importing the required packages
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

class Testclass {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {

        // initializing the Date
        Date d = new Date();

        // initializing the DateFormat using getInstance()
        DateFormat df = DateFormat.getInstance();

        // printing the DateFormat return value as object
        System.out.println("DateFormat Object : " + df);

        // formatting the current date into a string
        String str = df.format(d);

        // printing the current date
        System.out.println("Current date : " + str);
    }
}

Output

DateFormat Object : java.text.SimpleDateFormat@c88bcc54
Current date : 12/15/21, 8:23 AM

We can also display the date in the required format using SimpleDateFormat class.

Below is the example showing the use of SimpleDateFormat 

Example 2:

Java

// Java program to illustrate
// GetInstance() method

// importing the required packages
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

class Testclass {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // initializing the Date
        Date d = new Date();

        // initializing the DateFormat using getInstance()
        DateFormat df = DateFormat.getInstance();

        // printing the DateFormat return value as object
        System.out.println("DateFormat Object : " + df);

        // formatting the current date into a string
        String str = df.format(d);

        // printing the current date
        System.out.println("Current date : " + str);

        // initializing the SimpleDateFormat
        SimpleDateFormat sdf
            = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy");

        // formatting the SimpleDateFormat into a string
        String st = sdf.format(d);

        // printing the formatted value
        System.out.println("Formatted Date : " + st);
    }
}

Output

DateFormat Object : java.text.SimpleDateFormat@c88bcc54
Current date : 12/15/21, 8:26 AM
Formatted Date : 12-15-2021