GregorianCalendar is a concrete subclass of Java.Util.Calendar and provides the standard calendar used by most of the world.

The standard (Gregorian) calendar has 2 eras, BC and AD.

This implementation handles a single discontinuity, which corresponds by default to the date the Gregorian calendar was instituted (October 15, 1582 in some countries, later in others). The cutover date may be changed by the caller by calling setGregorianChange().

Historically, in those countries which adopted the Gregorian calendar first, October 4, 1582 was thus followed by October 15, 1582. This calendar models this correctly. Before the Gregorian cutover, GregorianCalendar implements the Julian calendar. The only difference between the Gregorian and the Julian calendar is the leap year rule. The Julian calendar specifies leap years every four years, whereas the Gregorian calendar omits century years which are not divisible by 400.

GregorianCalendar implements proleptic Gregorian and Julian calendars. That is, dates are computed by extrapolating the current rules indefinitely far backward and forward in time. As a result, GregorianCalendar may be used for all years to generate meaningful and consistent results. However, dates obtained using GregorianCalendar are historically accurate only from March 1, 4 AD onward, when modern Julian calendar rules were adopted. Before this date, leap year rules were applied irregularly, and before 45 BC the Julian calendar did not even exist.

Prior to the institution of the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day was March 25. To avoid confusion, this calendar always uses January 1. A manual adjustment may be made if desired for dates that are prior to the Gregorian changeover and which fall between January 1 and March 24.

Values calculated for the WEEK_OF_YEAR field range from 1 to 53. Week 1 for a year is the earliest seven day period starting on getFirstDayOfWeek() that contains at least getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek() days from that year. It thus depends on the values of getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek(), getFirstDayOfWeek(), and the day of the week of January 1. Weeks between week 1 of one year and week 1 of the following year are numbered sequentially from 2 to 52 or 53 (as needed).

For example, January 1, 1998 was a Thursday. If getFirstDayOfWeek() is MONDAY and getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek() is 4 (these are the values reflecting ISO 8601 and many national standards), then week 1 of 1998 starts on December 29, 1997, and ends on January 4, 1998. If, however, getFirstDayOfWeek() is SUNDAY, then week 1 of 1998 starts on January 4, 1998, and ends on January 10, 1998; the first three days of 1998 then are part of week 53 of 1997.

Values calculated for the WEEK_OF_MONTH field range from 0 or 1 to 4 or 5. Week 1 of a month (the days with WEEK_OF_MONTH = 1) is the earliest set of at least getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek() contiguous days in that month, ending on the day before getFirstDayOfWeek(). Unlike week 1 of a year, week 1 of a month may be shorter than 7 days, need not start on getFirstDayOfWeek(), and will not include days of the previous month. Days of a month before week 1 have a WEEK_OF_MONTH of 0.

For example, if getFirstDayOfWeek() is SUNDAY and getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek() is 4, then the first week of January 1998 is Sunday, January 4 through Saturday, January 10. These days have a WEEK_OF_MONTH of 1. Thursday, January 1 through Saturday, January 3 have a WEEK_OF_MONTH of 0. If getMinimalDaysInFirstWeek() is changed to 3, then January 1 through January 3 have a WEEK_OF_MONTH of 1.

Example:

java Example

 // get the supported ids for GMT-08:00 (Pacific Standard Time)
 String[] ids = TimeZone.getAvailableIDs(-8 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 // if no ids were returned, something is wrong. get out.
 if (ids.length == 0)
     System.exit(0);

  // begin output
 System.out.println("Current Time");

 // create a Pacific Standard Time time zone
 SimpleTimeZone pdt = new SimpleTimeZone(-8 * 60 * 60 * 1000, ids[0]);

 // set up rules for daylight savings time
 pdt.setStartRule(Calendar.APRIL, 1, Calendar.SUNDAY, 2 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 pdt.setEndRule(Calendar.OCTOBER, -1, Calendar.SUNDAY, 2 * 60 * 60 * 1000);

 // create a GregorianCalendar with the Pacific Daylight time zone
 // and the current date and time
 Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar(pdt);
 Date trialTime = new Date();
 calendar.setTime(trialTime);

 // print out a bunch of interesting things
 System.out.println("ERA: " + calendar.get(Calendar.ERA));
 System.out.println("YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR));
 System.out.println("MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH));
 System.out.println("WEEK_OF_YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.WEEK_OF_YEAR));
 System.out.println("WEEK_OF_MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.WEEK_OF_MONTH));
 System.out.println("DATE: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DATE));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_WEEK: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH: "
                    + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH));
 System.out.println("AM_PM: " + calendar.get(Calendar.AM_PM));
 System.out.println("HOUR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR));
 System.out.println("HOUR_OF_DAY: " + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY));
 System.out.println("MINUTE: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE));
 System.out.println("SECOND: " + calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND));
 System.out.println("MILLISECOND: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MILLISECOND));
 System.out.println("ZONE_OFFSET: "
                    + (calendar.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET)/(60*60*1000)));
 System.out.println("DST_OFFSET: "
                    + (calendar.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET)/(60*60*1000)));

 System.out.println("Current Time, with hour reset to 3");
 calendar.clear(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY); // so doesn't override
 calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR, 3);
 System.out.println("ERA: " + calendar.get(Calendar.ERA));
 System.out.println("YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR));
 System.out.println("MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH));
 System.out.println("WEEK_OF_YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.WEEK_OF_YEAR));
 System.out.println("WEEK_OF_MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.WEEK_OF_MONTH));
 System.out.println("DATE: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DATE));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_MONTH: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_YEAR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_WEEK: " + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK));
 System.out.println("DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH: "
                    + calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH));
 System.out.println("AM_PM: " + calendar.get(Calendar.AM_PM));
 System.out.println("HOUR: " + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR));
 System.out.println("HOUR_OF_DAY: " + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY));
 System.out.println("MINUTE: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE));
 System.out.println("SECOND: " + calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND));
 System.out.println("MILLISECOND: " + calendar.get(Calendar.MILLISECOND));
 System.out.println("ZONE_OFFSET: "
        + (calendar.get(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET)/(60*60*1000))); // in hours
 System.out.println("DST_OFFSET: "
        + (calendar.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET)/(60*60*1000))); // in hours
 

See Also

• Java.Util.Calendar
• Java.Util.TimeZone

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