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How to use JDatePicker to display calendar component

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Written by Nam Ha Minh

Last Updated on 05 July 2019 &nbsp | &nbsp

This tutorial shows you how to use the calendar component demo

1. Quick start with JDatePicker

Click

JDatePicker

library from SourceForge. The latest version as of now is 1.3.2. Extract the downloaded archive

JDatePicker-1.3.2-dist.zip

, and then find and add the

jdatepicker-1.3.2.jar

file to your project’s classpath.It’s pretty simple to create and add a date picker component to a container, i.e. a

DateModel

which is required by a

JDatePanelImpl

which is required by a

JDatePickerImpl

– which is then added to the container. For example, the following code snippet creates a date picker component using the

UtilDateModel

, and then adds it to the frame:

UtilDateModel model = new UtilDateModel();
JDatePanelImpl datePanel = new JDatePanelImpl(model);
JDatePickerImpl datePicker = new JDatePickerImpl(datePanel);

frame.add(datePicker);

The result is a component displayed which looks like this: date picker component It contains a disabled, read-only text field on the left, and an ellipsis button that will pop up a calendar when clicked:

Upon choosing a date, the calendar dismisses and the selected date is filled into the text field: date selected

2. Dealing with Date Models

The

JDatePicker

library provides three date models which correspond to three date time types in Java:

UtilDateModel

: the date picker will return the selected date as an object of type

java.util.Date

.
CalendarDateModel

: the date picker will return the selected date as an object of type

java.util.Calendar

.
SqlDateModel

: the date picker will return the selected date as an object of type

java.sql.Date

.

Choosing which model is depending on your need. And notice that, depending on the model used,the

JDatePickerImpl

returns the selected date object of appropriate type. For example, the following statement gets the selected date in case the model is

UtilDateModel

Date selectedDate = (Date) datePicker.getModel().getValue();

For the

CalendarDateModel

model, use the following code:

Calendar selectedValue = (Calendar) datePicker.getModel().getValue();
Date selectedDate = selectedValue.getTime();

For the

SqlDateModel

model, use the following code:

java.sql.Date selectedDate = (java.sql.Date) datePicker.getModel().getValue();

3. Setting initial date

You can set the initial date for the calendar component when it is popped up. For example:

UtilDateModel model = new UtilDateModel();
model.setDate(1990, 8, 24);

That sets the initial date to September 24, 1990 (because in Java, the month number is zero-based). Result: Setting initial date on the calendar If you want to set initial date for the text field, use the following statement:

model.setSelected(true);

Result: setting initial date on the text field

4. Customizing the date format

The default format of the date shown in the text field may not suite your need. In such case, you can create your own class that extends the

javax.swing.JFormattedTextField.AbstractFormatter

class. For example:

package net.codejava.swing;

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;

import javax.swing.JFormattedTextField.AbstractFormatter;

public class DateLabelFormatter extends AbstractFormatter {

	private String datePattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
	private SimpleDateFormat dateFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat(datePattern);
	
	@Override
	public Object stringToValue(String text) throws ParseException {
		return dateFormatter.parseObject(text);
	}

	@Override
	public String valueToString(Object value) throws ParseException {
		if (value != null) {
			Calendar cal = (Calendar) value;
			return dateFormatter.format(cal.getTime());
		}
		
		return "";
	}

}

As you can see, this class overrides the

stringToValue()

method to parse a

String

to a

Date

object; and overrides the

valueToString()

method to format the

Calendar

object to a

String

. The date pattern to use is yyy-MM-dd.And pass an instance of this custom class when constructing the date picker component as follows:

JDatePickerImpl datePicker = new JDatePickerImpl(datePanel, new DateLabelFormatter());

Result: customized date format You can download the Java source files under the attachment section.

References:

About the Author:

Nam Ha Minh is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He started programming with Java in the time of Java 1.4 and has been falling in love with Java since then. Make friend with him on

is certified Java programmer (SCJP and SCWCD). He started programming with Java in the time of Java 1.4 and has been falling in love with Java since then. Make friend with him on Facebook and watch his Java videos you YouTube.

Attachments:JDatePickerDemo.zip[Java source files]2 kB