Julian day of the year in Java

Question

I have seen the "solution" at http://www.rgagnon.com/javadetails/java-0506.html, but it doesn't work correctly. E.g. yesterday (June 8) should have been 159, but it said it was 245.

So, does someone have a solution in Java for getting the current date's three digit Julian day (not Julian date - I need the day this year)?

Thanks! Mark

Answer 1

import java.util.Calendar;
// ...
final int julianDay = Calendar.getInstance().get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);

Note that this doesn't take into account the "starts at noon" deal claimed by that weird site you referenced. That could be fixed by just checking the time of course.

Answer 2

If all you want is the day-of-year, why don'you just use GregorianCalendars DAY_OF_YEAR field?

import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
public class CalTest {
    public static void main(String[] argv) {
        GregorianCalendar gc = new GregorianCalendar();
        gc.set(GregorianCalendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 8);
        gc.set(GregorianCalendar.MONTH, GregorianCalendar.JUNE);
        gc.set(GregorianCalendar.YEAR, 2010);
        System.out.println(gc.get(GregorianCalendar.DAY_OF_YEAR));
}

}

Alternatively, you could calculate the difference between today's Julian date and that of Jan 1st of this year. But be sure to add 1 to the result, since Jan 1st is not the zeroth day of the year:

int[] now = {2010, 6, 8};
int[] janFirst = {2010, 1, 1};
double dayOfYear = toJulian(now) - toJulian(janFirst) + 1
System.out.println(Double.valueOf(dayOfYear).intValue());