How do I iterate each character of a string?

The following example show you how to iterate each character of a string using the java.text.CharacterIterator and java.text.StringCharacterIterator to count the number of vowels and consonants in the string.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.CharacterIterator;
import java.text.StringCharacterIterator;

public class StringCharacterIteratorExample {
    private static final String text =
        "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog";

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        CharacterIterator it = new StringCharacterIterator(text);

        int vowels = 0;
        int consonants = 0;

        // Iterates character sets from the beginning to the last character
        for (char ch = it.first(); ch != CharacterIterator.DONE; ch = it.next()) {
            if (ch == 'a' || ch == 'e' || ch == 'i' || ch == 'o' || ch == 'u') {
                vowels = vowels + 1;
            } else if (ch != ' ') {
                consonants = consonants + 1;
            }
        }

        System.out.println("Number of vowels: " + vowels);
        System.out.println("Number of consonants: " + consonants);
    }
}

The output of the code snippet above:

Number of vowels: 11
Number of consonants: 24

How do I create a scheduled task using timer?

This example show you how to create a simple class for scheduling a task using Timer and TimerTask class.

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;

public class TimerExample extends TimerTask {
    private final DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm:ss a");

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Create an instance of TimerTask implementor.
        TimerTask task = new TimerExample();

        // Create a new timer to schedule the TimerExample instance at a
        // periodic time every 5000 milliseconds (5 seconds) and start it
        // immediately
        Timer timer = new Timer();
        timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(task, new Date(), 5000);
    }

    /**
     * This method is the implementation of a contract defined in the 
     * TimerTask class. This in the entry point of the task execution.
     */
    public void run() {
        // To make the example simple we just print the current time.
        System.out.println(formatter.format(new Date()));
    }
}

Here is the result printed by the code snippet above:

09:53:28 AM
09:53:33 AM
09:53:38 AM
09:53:43 AM
09:53:48 AM

How do I format a date-time value?

In the DateFormat class there are some predefined constants that we can use to format a date time value. Here is an example of it.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

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

        // Format date in a short format
        String today = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.SHORT,
                DateFormat.SHORT).format(date);
        System.out.println("Today " + today);

        // Format date in a medium format
        today = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.MEDIUM,
                DateFormat.MEDIUM).format(date);
        System.out.println("Today " + today);

        // Format date in a long format
        today = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG,
                DateFormat.LONG).format(date);
        System.out.println("Today " + today);
    }
}

And you’ll see the result as follows:

Today 9/24/21 9:40 AM
Today Sep 24, 2021 9:40:28 AM
Today September 24, 2021 9:40:28 AM CST

How do I format a date into dd/MM/yyyy?

Formatting how data should be displayed on the screen is a common requirement when creating a program or application. Displaying information in a good and concise format can be an added values to the users of the application. In the following code snippet we will learn how to format a date into a certain display format.

For these purposes we can utilize the DateFormat and SimpleDateFormat classes from the java.text package. We can easily format a date in our program by creating an instance of SimpleDateFormat class and specify to format pattern. Calling the DateFormat.format(Date date) method will format a date into a date-time string.

You can see the details about date and time patters in the following link: Date and Time Patterns. Now, let’s see an example as shown in the code snippet below.

package org.kodejava.text;

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

public class DateFormatExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Date date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();

        // Display a date in day, month, year format
        DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
        String today = formatter.format(date);
        System.out.println("Today : " + today);

        // Display date with day name in a short format
        formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd/MM/yyyy");
        today = formatter.format(date);
        System.out.println("Today : " + today);

        // Display date with a short day and month name
        formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy");
        today = formatter.format(date);
        System.out.println("Today : " + today);

        // Formatting date with full day and month name and show time up to
        // milliseconds with AM/PM
        formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, dd MMMM yyyy, hh:mm:ss.SSS a");
        today = formatter.format(date);
        System.out.println("Today : " + today);
    }
}

Let’s view what we got on the console:

Today : 24/09/2021
Today : Fri, 24/09/2021
Today : Fri, 24 Sep 2021
Today : Friday, 24 September 2021, 09:36:32.724 AM

How do I get the last day of a month?

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.text.DateFormatSymbols;
import java.util.Calendar;

public class LastDayOfMonth {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Get a calendar instance
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();

        // Get the last date of the current month. To get the last date for a
        // specific month you can set the calendar month using calendar object
        // calendar.set(Calendar.MONTH, theMonth) method.
        int lastDate = calendar.getActualMaximum(Calendar.DATE);

        // Set the calendar date to the last date of the month so then we can
        // get the last day of the month
        calendar.set(Calendar.DATE, lastDate);
        int lastDay = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);

        // Print the current date and the last date of the month
        System.out.println("Last Date: " + calendar.getTime());

        // The lastDay will be in a value from 1 to 7 where 1 = Sunday and 7 =
        // Saturday. The first day of the week is based on the locale.
        System.out.println("Last Day : " + lastDay);

        // Get weekday name
        DateFormatSymbols dfs = new DateFormatSymbols();
        System.out.println("Last Day : " + dfs.getWeekdays()[lastDay]);
    }
}

Here is the output of the code snippet above:

Last Date: Thu Sep 30 06:44:05 CST 2021
Last Day : 5
Last Day : Thursday