Let me throw out some example code that I got from http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/ehchua/programming/java/DateTimeCalendar.html Then you can play around with different options until you understand it.

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateTest {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       Date now = new Date();

       //This is just Date's toString method and doesn't involve SimpleDateFormat
       System.out.println("toString(): " + now);  // dow mon dd hh:mm:ss zzz yyyy
       //Shows  "Mon Oct 08 08:17:06 EDT 2012"

       SimpleDateFormat dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("E, y-M-d 'at' h:m:s a z");
       System.out.println("Format 1:   " + dateFormatter.format(now));
       // Shows  "Mon, 2012-10-8 at 8:17:6 AM EDT"

       dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("E yyyy.MM.dd 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz");
       System.out.println("Format 2:   " + dateFormatter.format(now));
       // Shows  "Mon 2012.10.08 at 08:17:06 AM EDT"

       dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, MMMM d, yyyy");
       System.out.println("Format 3:   " + dateFormatter.format(now));
       // Shows  "Monday, October 8, 2012"

       // SimpleDateFormat can be used to control the date/time display format:
       //   E (day of week): 3E or fewer (in text xxx), >3E (in full text)
       //   M (month): M (in number), MM (in number with leading zero)
       //              3M: (in text xxx), >3M: (in full text full)
       //   h (hour): h, hh (with leading zero)
       //   m (minute)
       //   s (second)
       //   a (AM/PM)
       //   H (hour in 0 to 23)
       //   z (time zone)
       //  (there may be more listed under the API - I didn't check)

   }

}

Good luck!