How do I manipulate LocalDate object using TemporalAdjuster?

In the previous example we manipulate the value of LocalDate by adding or subtracting the value of date object by days, months, years using methods like plusMonths() or minusDays(). Or by changing the year or the month of the date object using methods like withYear() or withMonth().

But there are times that we want to manipulate the date object so that we can get the first day of the month or the last day of the month. We want to manipulate the date value to advance the date to the first Monday after the current day or the last the of the year.

To manipulate the date object in this way we can use the with() method and pass a TemporalAdjuster object as an argument. Fortunately, the Date and Time API already provide some commonly used TemporalAdjuster. These TemporalAdjuster are provided as a static factory methods that we can find in the java.time.temporal.TemporalAdjusters class.

The following example is a code snippet to manipulate the date object using TemporalAdjuster / TemporalAdjusters class.

package org.kodejava.datetime;

import java.time.DayOfWeek;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.temporal.TemporalAdjusters;

public class DateManipulationWithTemporalAdjuster {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate date = LocalDate.now();
        System.out.println("Current date       = " + date);

        LocalDate date1 = date.with(TemporalAdjusters.firstDayOfMonth());
        System.out.println("First day of month = " + date1);

        LocalDate date2 = date.with(TemporalAdjusters.lastDayOfMonth());
        System.out.println("Last day of month  = " + date2);

        LocalDate date3 = date.with(TemporalAdjusters.next(DayOfWeek.MONDAY));
        System.out.println("Next Monday        = " + date3);

        LocalDate date4 = date.with(TemporalAdjusters.lastDayOfYear());
        System.out.println("Last day of year   = " + date4);
    }
}

The result of the code snippet are:

Current date       = 2021-11-18
First day of month = 2021-11-01
Last day of month  = 2021-11-30
Next Monday        = 2021-11-22
Last day of year   = 2021-12-31

The table below shows the complete static factory methods provided by the TemporalAdjusters class.

Method Name Method Description
dayOfWeekInMonth Returns a new date in the same month with the ordinal day-of-week.
firstDayOfMonth Returns a new date set to the first day of the current month.
firstDayOfNextMonth Returns a new date set to the first day of the next month.
firstDayOfNextYear Returns a new date set to the first day of the next year.
firstDayOfYear Returns a new date set to the first day of the current year.
firstInMonth Returns a new date in the same month with the first matching day-of-week.
lastDayOfMonth Returns a new date set to the last day of the current month.
lastDayOfYear Returns a new date set to the last day of the current year.
lastInMonth Returns a new date in the same month with the last matching day-of-week.
next Returns the next day-of-week adjuster.
nextOrSame Returns the next-or-same day-of-week adjuster.
ofDateAdjuster Returns user-written adjuster.
previous Returns the previous day-of-week adjuster.
previousOrSame Returns the previous-or-same day-of-week adjuster.

How do I manipulate the value of LocalDate object?

In the following example we will learn how to manipulate a LocalDate object. There are many methods available for us to change the value of a LocalDate object. For example, we can change the year, month and day of LocalDate object. We can use methods like withYear(), withDayOfMonth(), plusYears(), minusMonths(), etc. All these methods will return a new LocalDate object, the original LocalDate will stay unchanged.

Let’s see the following code example for demonstration on how to manipulate the value of LocalDate object.

package org.kodejava.datetime;

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Month;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoField;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;

public class LocalDateManipulation {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        absoluteAttributeManipulations();
        relativeAttributeManipulations();
    }

    private static void absoluteAttributeManipulations() {
        System.out.println("LocalDateManipulation.absoluteAttributeManipulations");
        LocalDate date1 = LocalDate.of(2021, Month.JANUARY, 1);
        LocalDate date2 = date1.withYear(2010);
        LocalDate date3 = date2.withMonth(Month.DECEMBER.getValue());
        LocalDate date4 = date3.withDayOfMonth(15);
        LocalDate date5 = date4.with(ChronoField.DAY_OF_YEAR, 100);

        System.out.println("of(2021, Month.JANUARY, 1)                 => " + date1);
        System.out.println("date1.withYear(2010)                       => " + date2);
        System.out.println("date2.withMonth(Month.DECEMBER.getValue()) => " + date3);
        System.out.println("date3.withDayOfMonth(15)                   => " + date4);
        System.out.println("date4.with(ChronoField.DAY_OF_YEAR, 100)   => " + date5);
    }

    private static void relativeAttributeManipulations() {
        System.out.println("LocalDateManipulation.relativeAttributeManipulations");
        LocalDate date1 = LocalDate.of(2021, Month.AUGUST, 17);
        LocalDate date2 = date1.minusYears(70);
        LocalDate date3 = date2.plusMonths(10);
        LocalDate date4 = date3.minusDays(15);
        LocalDate date5 = date4.plusWeeks(52);
        LocalDate date6 = date5.minus(52, ChronoUnit.WEEKS);

        System.out.println("of(2021, Month.AUGUST, 17)        => " + date1);
        System.out.println("date1.minusYears(70)              => " + date2);
        System.out.println("date1.plusMonths(10)              => " + date3);
        System.out.println("date3.minusDays(15)               => " + date4);
        System.out.println("date4.plusWeeks(52)               => " + date5);
        System.out.println("date5.minus(52, ChronoUnit.WEEKS) => " + date6);

    }
}

The results of this code snippet are:

LocalDateManipulation.absoluteAttributeManipulations
of(2021, Month.JANUARY, 1)                 => 2021-01-01
date1.withYear(2010)                       => 2010-01-01
date2.withMonth(Month.DECEMBER.getValue()) => 2010-12-01
date3.withDayOfMonth(15)                   => 2010-12-15
date4.with(ChronoField.DAY_OF_YEAR, 100)   => 2010-04-10

LocalDateManipulation.relativeAttributeManipulations
of(2021, Month.AUGUST, 17)        => 2021-08-17
date1.minusYears(70)              => 1951-08-17
date1.plusMonths(10)              => 1952-06-17
date3.minusDays(15)               => 1952-06-02
date4.plusWeeks(52)               => 1953-06-01
date5.minus(52, ChronoUnit.WEEKS) => 1952-06-02

How do I load file from resource directory?

In the following code snippet we will learn how to load files from resource directory. Resource files can be in a form of image, audio, text, etc. Text resource file for example can be used to store application configurations, such as database configuration.

To load this resource file you can use a couple methods utilizing the java.lang.Class methods or the java.lang.ClassLoader methods. Both Class and ClassLoader provides getResource() and getResourceAsStream() methods to load resource file. The first method return a URL object while the second method return an InputStream.

When using the Class method, if the resource name started with “/” that identifies it is an absolute name. Absolute name means that it will load from the specified directory name or package name. While if it is not started with “/” then it is identified as a relative name. This means that it will look in the same package as the class that tries to load the resource.

App.class.getResource("database.conf");

The snippet will attempt to load the resource file from the same package as the App class. If the App class package is org.kodejava then the database.conf file must be located at /org/kodejava/. This is the relative resource name.

App.class.getResource("/org/kodejava/conf/database.conf"):

The snippet will attempt to load the resource file from the given package name. You should place the configuration file under /org/kodejava/conf/ to enable the application to load it. This is the absolute resource name.

Below is a snippet that use the Class method to load resources.

private void loadUsingClassMethod() throws IOException {
    System.out.println("LoadResourceFile.loadUsingClassMethod");
    Properties properties = new Properties();

    // Load resource relatively to the LoadResourceFile package.
    // This actually load resource from
    // "/org/kodejava/lang/database.conf".
    URL resource = getClass().getResource("database.conf");
    properties.load(new FileReader(Objects.requireNonNull(resource).getFile()));
    System.out.println("JDBC Driver: " + properties.get("jdbc.driver"));

    // Load resource using absolute name. This will read resource
    // from the root of the package. This will load "/database.conf".
    InputStream is = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/database.conf");
    properties.load(is);
    System.out.println("JDBC Driver: " + properties.get("jdbc.driver"));
}

When we use the ClassLoader method the resource name should not begins with a “/“. This method will not apply any absolute / relative transformation to the resource name like the Class method. Here a snippet of a method that use the ClassLoader method.

private void loadUsingClassLoaderMethod() throws IOException {
    System.out.println("LoadResourceFile.loadUsingClassLoaderMethod");
    Properties properties = new Properties();

    // When using the ClassLoader method, the resource name should
    // not be started with "/". This method will not apply any
    // absolute/relative transformation to the resource name.
    ClassLoader classLoader = getClass().getClassLoader();
    URL resource = classLoader.getResource("database.conf");
    properties.load(new FileReader(Objects.requireNonNull(resource).getFile()));
    System.out.println("JDBC URL: " + properties.get("jdbc.url"));

    InputStream is = classLoader.getResourceAsStream("database.conf");
    properties.load(is);
    System.out.println("JDBC URL: " + properties.get("jdbc.url"));
}

Below is the main program that calls the methods above.

package org.kodejava.lang;

import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.net.URL;
import java.util.Objects;
import java.util.Properties;

public class LoadResourceFile {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        LoadResourceFile demo = new LoadResourceFile();
        demo.loadUsingClassMethod();
        demo.loadUsingClassLoaderMethod();
    }
}

In the snippet above we load two difference resources. One contains Oracle database configuration and the other is MySQL database configuration.

/resources/org/kodejava/lang/database.conf

jdbc.driver=oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
jdbc.url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521:xe
jdbc.username=kodejava
jdbc.password=kodejava123

/resources/database.conf

jdbc.driver=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver
jdbc.url=jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava
jdbc.username=kodejava
jdbc.password=kodejava123

The result of this code snippet are:

LoadResourceFile.loadUsingClassMethod
JDBC Driver: oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
JDBC Driver: com.mysql.jdbc.Driver

LoadResourceFile.loadUsingClassLoaderMethod
JDBC URL: jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava
JDBC URL: jdbc:mysql://localhost/kodejava

How do I fill array with non-default value?

This code snippet will show you how to create array variable and initialized it with a non-default value. By default, when we create an array of something in Java all entries will have its default value. For primitive types like int, long, float the default value are zero (0 or 0.0). For reference types (anything that holds an object in it) will have null as the default value. For boolean variable it will be false.

If you want to initialize the array to different value you can use the Arrays.fill() method. This method will help you to set the value for every element of the array.

Let see the following code snippet as an example:

package org.kodejava.util;

import java.util.Arrays;

public class ArraysFillExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Assign -1 to each element of numbers arrays
        int[] numbers = new int[5];
        Arrays.fill(numbers, -1);
        System.out.println("Numbers: " + Arrays.toString(numbers));

        // Assign 1.0f to each element of prices arrays
        float[] prices = new float[5];
        Arrays.fill(prices, 1.0f);
        System.out.println("Prices : " + Arrays.toString(prices));

        // Assign empty string to each element of words arrays
        String[] words = new String[5];
        Arrays.fill(words, "");
        System.out.println("Words  : " + Arrays.toString(words));

        // Assign 9 to each element of the multi array
        int[][] multi = new int[3][3];
        for (int[] array : multi) {
            Arrays.fill(array, 9);
        }
        System.out.println("Multi  : " + Arrays.deepToString(multi));
    }
}

In the code snippet above we utilize the Arrays.fill() utility method to assign value for each element of the int, float and String array. To change the default value of multidimensional array we can’t directly call the Arrays.fill() method. In the example we use for-loop to set each element of the sub-array using the Arrays.fill() method.

The output of the code snippet above are:

Numbers: [-1, -1, -1, -1, -1]
Prices : [1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0, 1.0]
Words  : [, , , , ]
Multi  : [[9, 9, 9], [9, 9, 9], [9, 9, 9]]

How do I escape / display percent sign in printf statement?

You have a problem displaying the % sign when you want to print a number in percentage format using the printf() method. Because the % sign is use as a prefix of format specifiers, you need to escape it if you want to display the % sign as part of the output string.

To escape the percent sign (%) you need to write it twice, like %%. It will print out a single % sign as part of your printf() method output. Let see an example in the code snippet below:

package org.kodejava.lang;

public class EscapePercentSignExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String format = "The current bank interest rate is %6.2f%%.%n";
        System.out.printf(format, 10f);
    }
}

In the code snippet above we use the following format %6.2f%%.%n which can be explained as:

  • %6.2f format the number (10f) as six characters in width, right justified, with two places after decimal point. The f conversion character means it accept a float value.
  • %% will escape the % sign and print it as part of the output.
  • %n will print out a new line character.

When you execute the code, it will print:

The current bank interest rate is  10.00%.