Set Date in a single line

Question

According to the java API, the constructor Date(year, month, day) is depreciated. I know that I can replace it with the following code:

Calendar myCal = Calendar.getInstance();
myCal.set(Calendar.YEAR, theYear);
myCal.set(Calendar.MONTH, theMonth);
myCal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, theDay);
Date theDate = myCal.getTime();

However, I would like something shorter to replace it with (ideally one-two lines).

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You could use new GregorianCalendar(theYear, theMonth, theDay).getTime():

public GregorianCalendar(int year, int month, int dayOfMonth)

Constructs a GregorianCalendar with the given date set in the default time zone with the default locale.

Answer 2

This is yet another reason to use Joda Time

new DateMidnight(2010, 3, 5)

Answer 3

You could use

new SimpleDateFormat( "yyyyMMdd" ).parse( "20100520" )

Answer 4

Calendar has a set() method that can set the year, month, and day-of-month in one call:

myCal.set( theYear, theMonth, theDay );

Answer 5

Why don't you just write a simple utility method:

public final class DateUtils {
    private DateUtils() {
    }

    public static Calendar calendarFor(int year, int month, int day) {
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, year);
        cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, month);
        cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, day);
        return cal;
    }

    // ... maybe other utility methods
}

And then call that everywhere in the rest of your code:

Calendar cal = DateUtils.calendarFor(2010, Calendar.MAY, 21);