How do I format a date with Dart?

I have an instance of DateTime and I would like to format that to a String. How do I do that? I want to turn the date into a string, something like "2013-04-20".

You can use the intl package (installer) to format dates.

For en_US formats, it's quite simple:

import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

main() {
  final DateTime now = DateTime.now();
  final DateFormat formatter = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd');
  final String formatted = formatter.format(now);
  print(formatted); // something like 2013-04-20
}

There are many options for formatting. From the docs:

ICU Name                   Skeleton
--------                   --------
DAY                          d
ABBR_WEEKDAY                 E
WEEKDAY                      EEEE
ABBR_STANDALONE_MONTH        LLL
STANDALONE_MONTH             LLLL
NUM_MONTH                    M
NUM_MONTH_DAY                Md
NUM_MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY        MEd
ABBR_MONTH                   MMM
ABBR_MONTH_DAY               MMMd
ABBR_MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY       MMMEd
MONTH                        MMMM
MONTH_DAY                    MMMMd
MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY            MMMMEEEEd
ABBR_QUARTER                 QQQ
QUARTER                      QQQQ
YEAR                         y
YEAR_NUM_MONTH               yM
YEAR_NUM_MONTH_DAY           yMd
YEAR_NUM_MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY   yMEd
YEAR_ABBR_MONTH              yMMM
YEAR_ABBR_MONTH_DAY          yMMMd
YEAR_ABBR_MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY  yMMMEd
YEAR_MONTH                   yMMMM
YEAR_MONTH_DAY               yMMMMd
YEAR_MONTH_WEEKDAY_DAY       yMMMMEEEEd
YEAR_ABBR_QUARTER            yQQQ
YEAR_QUARTER                 yQQQQ
HOUR24                       H
HOUR24_MINUTE                Hm
HOUR24_MINUTE_SECOND         Hms
HOUR                         j
HOUR_MINUTE                  jm
HOUR_MINUTE_SECOND           jms
HOUR_MINUTE_GENERIC_TZ       jmv
HOUR_MINUTE_TZ               jmz
HOUR_GENERIC_TZ              jv
HOUR_TZ                      jz
MINUTE                       m
MINUTE_SECOND                ms
SECOND                       s

For non-en_US dates, you need to explicitly load in the locale. See the DateFormat docs for more info. The date_symbol_data_local.dart contains all of the formats for each country/language, if you would like a more in-depth look.

This will work too:

DateTime today = new DateTime.now();
String dateSlug ="${today.year.toString()}-${today.month.toString().padLeft(2,'0')}-${today.day.toString().padLeft(2,'0')}";
print(dateSlug);

You can also specify the date format like stated earlier: https://pub.dev/documentation/intl/latest/intl/DateFormat-class.html

import 'package:intl/intl.dart';
String formatDate(DateTime date) => new DateFormat("MMMM d").format(date);

Produces: March 4

If someone wants to convert a date in string format to some other string format first use DateTime.parse("2019-09-30") then pass it to DateFormat("date pattern").format() like

dateFormate = DateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy").format(DateTime.parse("2019-09-30"));

Reference: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58040606/dart-how-to-change-format-of-simple-date-string-which-is-in-yyyy-mm-dd-to-dd-m#answer-58042809

pubspec.yaml:

dependencies:
  intl:

main.dart:

import 'package:intl/intl.dart'; // for date format
import 'package:intl/date_symbol_data_local.dart'; // for other locales

void main() {
  var now = DateTime.now();
  print(DateFormat().format(now)); // This will return date using the default locale
  print(DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss').format(now));
  print(DateFormat.yMMMMd().format(now)); // print long date 
  print(DateFormat.yMd().format(now)); // print short date 
  print(DateFormat.jms().format(now)); // print time 

  initializeDateFormatting('es'); // This will initialize Spanish locale
  print(DateFormat.yMMMMd('es').format(now)); // print long date in Spanish format
  print(DateFormat.yMd('es').format(now)); // print short date in Spanish format
  print(DateFormat.jms('es').format(now)); // print time in Spanish format
}

Result:

May 31, 2020 5:41:42 PM
2020-05-31 05:41:42
May 31, 2020
5/31/2020
5:41:42 PM
31 de mayo de 2020
31/5/2020
17:41:42

This give you the date like in a social network : ["today","yesterday","dayoftheweek",etc..]

void main() {
      DateTime now = new DateTime(2018,6,26);
      print(date(now));
    }
    
    String date(DateTime tm) {
      DateTime today = new DateTime.now();
      Duration oneDay = new Duration(days: 1);
      Duration twoDay = new Duration(days: 2);
      Duration oneWeek = new Duration(days: 7);
      String month;
      switch (tm.month) {
        case 1:
          month = "january";
          break;
        case 2:
          month = "february";
          break;
        case 3:
          month = "march";
          break;
        case 4:
          month = "april";
          break;
        case 5:
          month = "may";
          break;
        case 6:
          month = "june";
          break;
        case 7:
          month = "july";
          break;
        case 8:
          month = "august";
          break;
        case 9:
          month = "september";
          break;
        case 10:
          month = "october";
          break;
        case 11:
          month = "november";
          break;
        case 12:
          month = "december";
          break;
      }
    
      Duration difference = today.difference(tm);
    
      if (difference.compareTo(oneDay) < 1) {
        return "today";
      } else if (difference.compareTo(twoDay) < 1) {
        return "yesterday";
      } else if (difference.compareTo(oneWeek) < 1) {
        switch (tm.weekday) {
          case 1:
            return "monday";
          case 2:
            return "tuesday";
          case 3:
            return "wednesday";
          case 4:
            return "thursday";
          case 5:
            return "friday";
          case 6:
            return "saturday";
          case 7:
            return "sunday";
        }
      } else if (tm.year == today.year) {
        return '${tm.day} $month';
      } else {
        return '${tm.day} $month ${tm.year}';
      }
    }

You can use this method as well, if you don't want to add another library

  DateTime dateTime = DateTime.now();
  String YYYY_MM_DD = dateTime.toIso8601String().split('T').first;
  print(YYYY_MM_DD); //2020-11-23

There is a package date_format

dependencies:
    date_format:

code

import 'package:date_format/date_format.dart';

final formattedStr = formatDate(
    yourDateTime, [dd, '.', mm, '.', yy, ' ', HH, ':', nn]);

// output example "29.03.19 07:00"

Pay attention: minutes are nn

link to the package

You can use the intl package to format dates in flutter.

void main() {
  final DateTime now = DateTime.now();
  final DateFormat format = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd');
  final String formatted = format.format(now);
  // 2021-03-02
}

or you can use date_format package to format dates in flutter.

import 'package:date_format/date_format.dart';

final formattedStr = formatDate(DateTime.now(), [dd, '-', mm, '-', yyyy]);

//02-03-2021

Another way.

Create an extension of DateTime:

date_time_extension.dart

import 'package:intl/date_symbol_data_local.dart';
import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

extension DateTimeExtension on DateTime {
  String format([String pattern = 'dd/MM/yyyy', String? locale]) {
    if (locale != null && locale.isNotEmpty) {
      initializeDateFormatting(locale);
    }
    return DateFormat(pattern, locale).format(this);
  }
}

Import this file where you are going to use DateTime type (you have to import it manually), and you can use it like this:

DateTime.now().format();

DateTime.now().format('MM/yyyy');

DateTime.now().format('MM/yyyy', 'es');

/// Get date as a string for display.
String getFormattedDate(String date) {
  /// Convert into local date format.
  var localDate = DateTime.parse(date).toLocal();

  /// inputFormat - format getting from api or other func.
  /// e.g If 2021-05-27 9:34:12.781341 then format must be yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm
  /// If 27/05/2021 9:34:12.781341 then format must be dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm
  var inputFormat = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm');
  var inputDate = inputFormat.parse(localDate.toString());

  /// outputFormat - convert into format you want to show.
  var outputFormat = DateFormat('dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm');
  var outputDate = outputFormat.format(inputDate);

  return outputDate.toString();
} 

In the case you want to combine several date format into one, this is how we can do using intl.

DateFormat('yMMMd').addPattern(DateFormat.HOUR24_MINUTE).format(yourDateTime))

handling yearly quarters, from string to DateTime, I didn't find proper solution so made this:

    List<String> dateAsList = 'Q1 2001'.split(' ');
    DateTime dateTime = DateTime.now();
    String quarter = dateAsList[0];
    int year = int.parse(dateAsList[1]);
    switch(quarter) {
      case "Q1": dateTime = DateTime(year, 1);
      break;
      case "Q2": dateTime = DateTime(year, 4);
      break;
      case "Q3": dateTime = DateTime(year, 7);
      break;
      case "Q4": dateTime = DateTime(year, 10);
      break;
    }

NO DEPENDENCY METHOD [FOR DISPLAYING DATE AS FORMATTED STRING]

If you want to show your DateTime value as a day/month/year or any other format you like, string interpolation can be handy :

"${_date.day} / ${_date.month} / ${_date.year}"

sample output :

> 23 / 4 / 1920

I don't want to use any additional library, so i went this way.

import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

main() {
  var formattedDate = new DateTime.Format('yyyy-MM-dd').DateTime.now();
  print(formattedDate); // something like 2020-04-16
}

For more details can refer DateFormat Documentation

String formatDate(String date) {
    return date.substring(0, 10).split('-').reversed.join().replaceAll('-', '/');
    
  }

From format "yyyy-mm-dd H:i:s"

 String dateConverter(String date) {
    // Input date Format
    final format = DateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy");
    DateTime gettingDate = format.parse(date);
    final DateFormat formatter = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd');
    // Output Date Format
    final String formatted = formatter.format(gettingDate);
    return date;
  }

main() {
  final String pattern = 'yyyy-MM-dd';
  final String formatted = DateFormat(pattern).format(DateTime.now());
  print(formatted);
}

Changing yyyy-MM-dd string you can change your date format. I made app for play with this pattern string.

You can experiment format string in my app It made with flutter. https://biplobsd.github.io/EpochConverterApp

Here you can see how can I edit the pattern and this effect showing on top

Current Day:

DateTime.now().day, //something like 26

---

Current Month:

DateTime.now().month, //something like 4

---

Current Year:

DateTime.now().year, //something like 2022

---

Current Houre:

DateTime.now().hour, //something like 12

---

Current Minute:

DateTime.now().minute, //something like 13

---

Current Second:

DateTime.now().second, //something like 44

A simpler way:

new DateFormat("dd-MM-y").format(YOUR_DATETIME_HERE)

Use "H:mm" to see full minutes like 13:08 not 13:8

Since the flutter usual Datetime library doesn't know the locale for Germany - neither de, nor DE, nor de_DE, nor de-DE or any other combinations, for example if you want to have the name of the month or the name of the day written in human readable string, I suggest you to use the following code.

install pub flutter pub add date_format

String formattedDate = formatDate(DateTime(year, month, day),[dd,'. ', MM, ' ', yyyy], locale: GermanDateLocale());

To get a nice user-friendly string that includes both the date and the time, you can use this:

import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

main() {
  final DateTime someDateTime = DateTime(2017, 9, 7, 17, 30);
  final DateFormat formatter = DateFormat.yMMMd().add_jms();
  final String formatted = formatter.format(someDateTime);
  print(formatted); // Sep 7, 2017 5:30:00 PM (in the US)
}