java - Format a date using the new date time API

Question

I was playing with the new date time API but when running this:

public class Test {         
    public static void main(String[] args){
        String dateFormatted = LocalDate.now()
                                        .format(DateTimeFormatter
                                              .ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
        System.out.println(dateFormatted);
    }
}

It throws:

Exception in thread "main" java.time.temporal.UnsupportedTemporalTypeException: Unsupported field: HourOfDay
    at java.time.LocalDate.get0(LocalDate.java:680)
    at java.time.LocalDate.getLong(LocalDate.java:659)
    at java.time.format.DateTimePrintContext.getValue(DateTimePrintContext.java:298)
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder$NumberPrinterParser.format(DateTimeFormatterBuilder.java:2543)
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatterBuilder$CompositePrinterParser.format(DateTimeFormatterBuilder.java:2182)
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.formatTo(DateTimeFormatter.java:1745)
    at java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter.format(DateTimeFormatter.java:1719)
    at java.time.LocalDate.format(LocalDate.java:1685)
    at Test.main(Test.java:23)

When looking at the source code of the LocalDate class, I see:

  private int get0(TemporalField field) {
        switch ((ChronoField) field) {
            case DAY_OF_WEEK: return getDayOfWeek().getValue();
            case ALIGNED_DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH: return ((day - 1) % 7) + 1;
            case ALIGNED_DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_YEAR: return ((getDayOfYear() - 1) % 7) + 1;
            case DAY_OF_MONTH: return day;
            case DAY_OF_YEAR: return getDayOfYear();
            case EPOCH_DAY: throw new UnsupportedTemporalTypeException("Invalid field 'EpochDay' for get() method, use getLong() instead");
            case ALIGNED_WEEK_OF_MONTH: return ((day - 1) / 7) + 1;
            case ALIGNED_WEEK_OF_YEAR: return ((getDayOfYear() - 1) / 7) + 1;
            case MONTH_OF_YEAR: return month;
            case PROLEPTIC_MONTH: throw new UnsupportedTemporalTypeException("Invalid field 'ProlepticMonth' for get() method, use getLong() instead");
            case YEAR_OF_ERA: return (year >= 1 ? year : 1 - year);
            case YEAR: return year;
            case ERA: return (year >= 1 ? 1 : 0);
        }
        throw new UnsupportedTemporalTypeException("Unsupported field: " + field);
    }

As it described in the doc:

This method will create a formatter based on a simple pattern of letters and symbols as described in the class documentation.

And all these letters are defined.

So why DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern doesn't allow us to use some pattern letters?

Answer 1

LocalDate represents just a date, not a DateTime. So "HH:mm:ss" make no sense when formatting a LocalDate. Use a LocalDateTime instead, assuming you want to represent both a date and time.