LocalDate in Java With Examples

The java.time.LocalDate class is part of new date and time API added in Java 8 that represents a date in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2019-10-03. LocalDate class does not store or represent a time or time-zone.

LocalDate class is immutable thus thread-safe. It is also marked as final so can't be extended.

In this post we’ll see some examples demonstrating usage of Java LocalDate class.

Table of contents

Creating instances of LocalDate
Getting Date values from LocalDate
Check if year is a leap year using LocalDate
Date calculations using LocalDate
Comparing LocalDates in Java
Converting String to LocalDate
Converting LocalDate to String

Creating instances of LocalDate

LocalDate class doesn't have any public constructors to obtain an instance, you will use a factory method.

1. Using now() to obtain an instance of the current date from the system clock in the default time-zone.

LocalDate currentDate = LocalDate.now();
System.out.println(currentDate); //2019-10-26

2. To obtain an instance of LocalDate from a year, month and day using of() method.

LocalDate date = LocalDate.of(2019, 10, 18);
System.out.println(date); // 2019-10-18

Getting Date values from LocalDate

There are methods to get day, month, year value from the LocalDate instance.

public class FormatDate {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    LocalDate date = LocalDate.of(2019, 10, 18);
    System.out.println("Year-" + date.getYear());
    // Using java.time.Month Enum
    System.out.println("Month-" + date.getMonth());
    // Month as int value
    System.out.println("Month-" + date.getMonthValue());
    System.out.println("Day-" + date.getDayOfMonth());
    System.out.println("Day of week-" + date.getDayOfWeek());
    System.out.println("Day of year-" + date.getDayOfYear());
  }
}

Output

Year-2019
Month-OCTOBER
Month-10
Day-18
Day of week-FRIDAY
Day of year-291

Check if year is a leap year using LocalDate

Using isLeapYear() method of LocalDate class in Java you can check if the year is a leap year.

public class FormatDate {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of(2019, 10, 18);
    
    String msg = localDate.isLeapYear()?"is a leap year":"is not a leap year";
    System.out.println(localDate.getYear() + " " + msg);
    
    localDate = LocalDate.of(2016, 10, 18);
    msg = localDate.isLeapYear()?"is a leap year":"is not a leap year";
    System.out.println(localDate.getYear() + " " + msg);
  }
}

Output

2019 is not a leap year
2016 is a leap year

Date calculations using LocalDate

There are methods to add or subtract days, months and years from a LocalDate.

plus(long amountToAdd, TemporalUnit unit)- Returns a copy of this date with the specified amount added.
plus(TemporalAmount amountToAdd)- Returns a copy of this date with the specified amount added.
plusDays(long daysToAdd)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of days added.
plusMonths(long monthsToAdd)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of months added.
plusWeeks(long weeksToAdd)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of weeks added.
plusYears(long yearsToAdd)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of years added.

minus(long amountToSubtract, TemporalUnit unit)- Returns a copy of this date with the specified amount subtracted.
minus(TemporalAmount amountToSubtract)- Returns a copy of this date with the specified amount subtracted.
minusDays(long daysToSubtract)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of days subtracted.
minusMonths(long monthsToSubtract)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of months subtracted.
minusWeeks(long weeksToSubtract)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of weeks subtracted.
minusYears(long yearsToSubtract)- Returns a copy of this LocalDate with the specified number of years subtracted.

LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of(2019, Month.OCTOBER, 18);
System.out.println("Created Local Date - " + localDate);//2019-10-18	  
System.out.println("Date after subtraction - " + localDate.minusDays(40));//2019-09-08
System.out.println("Date after year subtraction - " + localDate.minusYears(2));//2017-10-18

LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of(2019, Month.OCTOBER, 18);
System.out.println("Created Local Date - " + localDate);//2019-10-18	  
System.out.println("Date after addition - " + localDate.plusDays(40));//2019-11-27
System.out.println("Date after year addition - " + localDate.plusYears(2));//2021-10-18

Comparing LocalDates in Java

For comparing two LocalDate instances there are the following methods-

compareTo(ChronoLocalDate other)- Compares this date to another date. Returns the comparator value, negative if less, positive if greater.
isAfter(ChronoLocalDate other)- Checks if this date is after the specified date. Returns true if this date is after the specified date.
isBefore(ChronoLocalDate other)- Checks if this date is before the specified date. Returns true if this date is before the specified date.
isEqual(ChronoLocalDate other)- Checks if this date is equal to the specified date. Returns true if this date is equal to the specified date.

public class FormatDate {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    LocalDate ld1 = LocalDate.of(2019, Month.OCTOBER, 18);
    LocalDate ld2 = LocalDate.of(2019, Month.SEPTEMBER, 20);
    System.out.println(ld1.compareTo(ld2));
    System.out.println(ld2.compareTo(ld1));
    
    System.out.println(ld1.isAfter(ld2));
    System.out.println(ld1.isBefore(ld2));
    System.out.println(ld1.isEqual(ld2));
  }
}

Output

1
-1
true
false
false

Converting String to LocalDate

Check this post for String to LocalDate conversion- Convert String to Date in Java

Converting LocalDate to String

Check this post for LocalDate to String conversion- Convert Date to String in Java

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January 4, 2023