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Dates
Parsing

Parse a date and time from a string

Given the string "2008-05-06 13:29", parse it as a date representing 6th March, 2008 1:29:00pm in the local time zone.
ruby
# With timezone info
puts Time.parse('2008-05-06 13:29')
csharp
DateTime parsedDate = DateTime.Parse("2008-05-06 13:29");
// Ideally, you would catch the potential FormatException or use DateTime.TryParse in production code.
cpp
DateTimeOffset^ dateTime = DateTimeOffset::Parse("2008-05-06 13:29");

// Use format specifiers to appropriately format string
// 1. Default culture
Console::WriteLine("{0}", dateTime->ToString("d MMMM, yyyy h:mm:sstt"));

// 2. Nominated culture
Console::WriteLine("{0}", dateTime->ToString("d MMMM, yyyy h:mm:sstt"), Globalization::CultureInfo::CreateSpecificCulture("en-us"));
DateTimeOffset^ dateTime = DateTimeOffset::Parse("2008-05-06 13:29");

// Customize date/time string
Text::StringBuilder^ dsb = gcnew Text::StringBuilder(40);
dsb->Append(dateTime->ToString("%d"))->Append("th ")->Append(dateTime->ToString("MMMM, yyyy h:mm:ss"))->Append(dateTime->ToString("tt")->ToLower());

Console::WriteLine("{0}", dsb);
fantom
dt := DateTime.fromLocale("2008-05-06 13:29", "YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm")
erlang
% AFAIK, no datetime-parsing library exists; 'parse_to_datetime' is a simplistic, problem-specific hack
LocalDateTime = erlang:universaltime_to_localtime(parse_to_datetime("2008-05-06 13:29:34")),
groovy
def date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyy-MM-dd HH:mm").parse("2008-05-06 13:29")
def date = Date.parse("yyy-MM-dd HH:mm", "2008-05-06 13:29")
clojure
(.. (SimpleDateFormat. "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm")
(parse "2008-05-06 13:29"))
Printing

Display information about a date

Display the day of month, day of year, month name and day name of the day 8 days from now.
ruby
require 'date'

next_week = Date.today + 8

puts next_week.day # day of month
puts next_week.yday # day of year
puts next_week.strftime('%B') # month name
puts next_week.strftime('%A') # day name
csharp
DateTime date = DateTime.Today.AddDays(8);

Console.WriteLine("Day of month: " + date.Day);
Console.WriteLine("Day of year: " + date.DayOfYear);
Console.WriteLine("Month name: " + date.ToString("MMMM"));
Console.WriteLine("Day name: " + date.ToString("dddd"));

// The two ToString calls will use the current locale.
// To get localised month and day names, see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/8tfzyc64.aspx
cpp
QDate dateEightDaysFromNow = QDate::currentDate().addDays(8);
fantom
date := Date.today + 8day
echo(date.day)
echo(date.dayOfYear)
echo(date.month.localeFull)
echo(date.weekday.localeFull)
groovy
use (TimeCategory) {
eight_days_time = 1.week.from.now + 1.day
}
println eight_days_time[DAY_OF_MONTH]
println eight_days_time.format('d') // alternative to above
println eight_days_time[DAY_OF_YEAR]
println eight_days_time.format('MMMM')
println eight_days_time.format('EEEE')
clojure
(let [cal (Calendar/getInstance)]
(.add cal Calendar/DAY_OF_YEAR 8)
(println (.format (SimpleDateFormat. "d, D, MMMM, EEEE")
(.getTime cal))))

Display a date in different locales

Display a language/locale friendly version of New Year's Day for 2009 for several languages/locales. E.g. for languages English, French, German, Italian, Dutch the output might be something like:

Thursday, January 1, 2009
jeudi 1 janvier 2009
giovedì 1 gennaio 2009
Donnerstag, 1. Januar 2009
donderdag 1 januari 2009

(Indicate in comments where possible if any language specific or operating system configuration needs to be in place.)
csharp
using System.Globalization;

DateTime newYearsDay = new DateTime(2009, 1, 1);
CultureInfo[] locales = {
CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("en-US"),
CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("fr-FR"),
CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("de-DE"),
CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("it-IT"),
CultureInfo.CreateSpecificCulture("nl-NL")
};

foreach (CultureInfo locale in locales)
{
Console.WriteLine(newYearsDay.ToString("D", locale));
}
cpp
QList<QLocale::Language> locales;
locales << QLocale::English
<< QLocale::French
<< QLocale::German
<< QLocale::Italian
<< QLocale::Dutch;

QDate date(2009, 1, 1);
foreach (QLocale::Language ll, locales)
{
QLocale::setDefault(ll);
qDebug() << date.toString(Qt::DefaultLocaleLongDate);
}
fantom
// May require modification of Fantom distribution t
// for undefined locales - basically just create a '<locale-name>.props' plain text file with values like this:
// sunAbbr=Sun
// ..
// sunFull=Sunday
["en", "fr", "ru"].map { Locale(it) }.each |Locale l| {
l.use { echo(Date(2009, Month.jan, 1).toLocale("WWWW, MMMM D, YYYY")) }
}
groovy
cal = Calendar.instance
cal.set(2009, JANUARY, 1)
[ENGLISH, FRENCH, ITALIAN, GERMAN, new Locale('nl')].each { lang ->
println getDateInstance(FULL, lang).format(cal.time)
}

// relies on Java I18N capabilities which supports many locales, see:
// http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/core/basic/intl/
// available Locales may depend on your version of Java and/or
// operating system and/or installed fonts
clojure
(let [time (.getTime (GregorianCalendar. 2009 Calendar/JANUARY 1))]
(doseq [locale ["en" "fr" "it" "de" "nl"]]
(println (.format (DateFormat/getDateInstance DateFormat/FULL
(Locale. locale))
time))))
Creation

Display the current date and time

Create a Date object representing the current date and time. Print it out.
If you can also do this without creating a Date object you can show that too.
ruby
puts DateTime.now
csharp
// Creating a variable first:
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
Console.WriteLine(now);

// Without creating a variable:
Console.WriteLine(DateTime.Now);
cpp
QDate now = QDate::currentData();
qDebug() << now.toString();
time_t date = time(0);
cout << ctime(&date);
fantom
echo(DateTime.now)
erlang
io:format("~p~n", [calendar:local_time()])
groovy
println new Date()
clojure
(import 'java.util.Date)

(println (str (Date.)))