Are java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar deprecated?

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Short answer: The new API java.time is way better than the old world with java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar. So yes, the new API should be preferred in new code.

For a quick overview: Once I had written a comparison of features in table form for various date-time-libraries. There is almost no feature which java.time is missing but exists in the old world:

  • configurable gregorian/julian cutover
  • printing based on the class FieldPosition (used in Swing-component FormattedTextField)

About deprecation: Although most parts of java.util.Date are deprecated since Java 1.1, the class itself (and java.util.Calendar, too) are not officially deprecated, just declared as de facto legacy. The support of the old classes is still important for the goal of backwards compatibility with legacy code. So Oracle will probably not stop the support at any time in the future. But maybe Oracle will apply more sophisticated deprecation strategies.

Future development: It is interesting that the release of Java-8 has not only incorporated a completely new date/time-API (java.time) but also seen some few enhancements to java.util.Calendar, for example Calendar.Builder or SHORT_STANDALONE etc. Well, I can only speculate but this also seems to indicate that Oracle is not willing to stop the support of the old API in the near future.

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Are java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar deprecated?

by

Short answer: The new API java.time is way better than the old world with java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar. So yes, the new API should be preferred in new code.

For a quick overview: Once I had written a comparison of features in table form for various date-time-libraries. There is almost no feature which java.time is missing but exists in the old world:

  • configurable gregorian/julian cutover
  • printing based on the class FieldPosition (used in Swing-component FormattedTextField)

About deprecation: Although most parts of java.util.Date are deprecated since Java 1.1, the class itself (and java.util.Calendar, too) are not officially deprecated, just declared as de facto legacy. The support of the old classes is still important for the goal of backwards compatibility with legacy code. So Oracle will probably not stop the support at any time in the future. But maybe Oracle will apply more sophisticated deprecation strategies.

Future development: It is interesting that the release of Java-8 has not only incorporated a completely new date/time-API (java.time) but also seen some few enhancements to java.util.Calendar, for example Calendar.Builder or SHORT_STANDALONE etc. Well, I can only speculate but this also seems to indicate that Oracle is not willing to stop the support of the old API in the near future.

More Related Contents:

  1. Are java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar deprecated?
  2. What’s the difference between Instant and LocalDateTime?
  3. Getting the date from a ResultSet for use with java.time classes
  4. Java 8 is not maintaining the order while grouping
  5. What is the difference between year and year-of-era?
  6. Is there a class in java.time comparable to the Joda-Time Interval?
  7. Why does Java8 Stream generate nothing?
  8. Is Joda Time deprecated with java 8 Date and Time API? (java.time)
  9. LocalDateTime to java.sql.Date in java 8?
  10. Do terminal operations close the stream?
  11. Issue with DateTimeParseException when using STRICT resolver style
  12. Java 8 stream emitting a stream
  13. When is a Java Class loaded?
  14. Drawbacks of javac -parameters flag
  15. PermGen elimination in JDK 8
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  17. How to convert a Java 8 Stream to an Array?
  18. How to sum a list of integers with java streams?
  19. How to subtract X day from a Date object in Java?
  20. Why does Stream not implement Iterable?
  21. LambdaConversionException with generics: JVM bug?
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