The java.util.Date class isn't actually deprecated, just that constructor, along with a couple other constructors/methods are deprecated. It was deprecated because that sort of usage doesn't work well with internationalization. The Calendar class should be used instead:
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, 1988);
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, Calendar.JANUARY);
cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
Date dateRepresentation = cal.getTime();
Take a look at the date Javadoc:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Date.html
Answer from BuffaloBuffalo on Stack OverflowThe java.util.Date class isn't actually deprecated, just that constructor, along with a couple other constructors/methods are deprecated. It was deprecated because that sort of usage doesn't work well with internationalization. The Calendar class should be used instead:
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, 1988);
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, Calendar.JANUARY);
cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
Date dateRepresentation = cal.getTime();
Take a look at the date Javadoc:
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Date.html
tl;dr
LocalDate.of( 1985 , 1 , 1 ) // Months 1-12 for January-December.
…or…
LocalDate.of( 1985 , Month.JANUARY , 1 )
Details
The java.util.Date, java.util.Calendar, and java.text.SimpleDateFormat classes were rushed too quickly when Java first launched and evolved. The classes were not well designed or implemented. Improvements were attempted, thus the deprecations you’ve found. Unfortunately the attempts at improvement largely failed. You should avoid these classes altogether. They are supplanted in Java 8 by new classes.
Problems In Your Code
A java.util.Date has both a date and a time portion. You ignored the time portion in your code. So the Date class will take the beginning of the day as defined by your JVM’s default time zone and apply that time to the Date object. So the results of your code will vary depending on which machine it runs or which time zone is set. Probably not what you want.
If you want just the date, without the time portion, such as for a birth date, you may not want to use a Date object. You may want to store just a string of the date, in ISO 8601 format of YYYY-MM-DD. Or use a LocalDate object from Joda-Time (see below).
Joda-Time
First thing to learn in Java: Avoid the notoriously troublesome java.util.Date & java.util.Calendar classes bundled with Java.
As correctly noted in the answer by user3277382, use either Joda-Time or the new java.time.* package in Java 8.
Example Code in Joda-Time 2.3
DateTimeZone timeZoneNorway = DateTimeZone.forID( "Europe/Oslo" );
DateTime birthDateTime_InNorway = new DateTime( 1985, 1, 1, 3, 2, 1, timeZoneNorway );
DateTimeZone timeZoneNewYork = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/New_York" );
DateTime birthDateTime_InNewYork = birthDateTime_InNorway.toDateTime( timeZoneNewYork );
DateTime birthDateTime_UtcGmt = birthDateTime_InNorway.toDateTime( DateTimeZone.UTC );
LocalDate birthDate = new LocalDate( 1985, 1, 1 );
Dump to console…
System.out.println( "birthDateTime_InNorway: " + birthDateTime_InNorway );
System.out.println( "birthDateTime_InNewYork: " + birthDateTime_InNewYork );
System.out.println( "birthDateTime_UtcGmt: " + birthDateTime_UtcGmt );
System.out.println( "birthDate: " + birthDate );
When run…
birthDateTime_InNorway: 1985-01-01T03:02:01.000+01:00
birthDateTime_InNewYork: 1984-12-31T21:02:01.000-05:00
birthDateTime_UtcGmt: 1985-01-01T02:02:01.000Z
birthDate: 1985-01-01
java.time
In this case the code for java.time is nearly identical to that of Joda-Time.
We get a time zone (ZoneId), and construct a date-time object assigned to that time zone (ZonedDateTime). Then using the Immutable Objects pattern, we create new date-times based on the old object’s same instant (count of nanoseconds since epoch) but assigned other time zone. Lastly we get a LocalDate which has no time-of-day nor time zone though notice the time zone applies when determining that date (a new day dawns earlier in Oslo than in New York for example).
ZoneId zoneId_Norway = ZoneId.of( "Europe/Oslo" );
ZonedDateTime zdt_Norway = ZonedDateTime.of( 1985 , 1 , 1 , 3 , 2 , 1 , 0 , zoneId_Norway );
ZoneId zoneId_NewYork = ZonedId.of( "America/New_York" );
ZonedDateTime zdt_NewYork = zdt_Norway.withZoneSameInstant( zoneId_NewYork );
ZonedDateTime zdt_Utc = zdt_Norway.withZoneSameInstant( ZoneOffset.UTC ); // Or, next line is similar.
Instant instant = zdt_Norway.toInstant(); // Instant is always in UTC.
LocalDate localDate_Norway = zdt_Norway.toLocalDate();
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. Hibernate 5 & JPA 2.2 support java.time.
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 brought 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 (26+) bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
- For earlier Android (<26), the latest Android tooling enables a process known as API desugaring to provide a subset of the java.time functionality not originally built into Android.
- If the desugaring does not offer what you need, the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above) to Android. See How to use ThreeTenABP….
The examples you found are for java.util.Date while you are using java.sql.Date
java.sql.Datehas two constructors
Date(long date): Constructs a Date object using the given milliseconds time value.Date(int year, int month, int day): which is deprecated
and no default
Date()constructor.java.util.Dateamong others has a default constructor without arguments
Date(): Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents the time at which it was allocated, measured to the nearest millisecond.
When importing classes, Eclipse will help you fining possible candidates but always check if the first suggestion is really what you want.
You are using the wrong Date class.
Have a look at your imports. Don't use java.sql.Date use java.util.Date instead.
I'm putting together a program that will handle a database of events. These events have certain dates associated with them (start time, end time, etc). To make things easier, I am making a class to represent the event, and am including several instance variables that represent these dates.
This is my first time handling dates/times in Java, so I looked online and found the built-in java.util.date class. However, the constructor I want to use (Date(int year, int month, int date, int hrs, int min)) has been deprecated and says it was replaced by Calendar.set. However, from what I can tell, a Calendar object isn't a replacement for a date object.
So I am confused as to how best to handle setting the dates in my instance variables. The old, deprecated constructor for the date object would be perfect for my class.