Choose a Date in Android by using DatePicker

In this post we will make an application to choose a date and display it using a DatePicker .

What are we going to do ?
-> We will let the user choose a date from the DatePicker and display a Toast with the Day, Month and Year when the user clicks the OK button .

What we need ?

A LinearLayout (activity_main.xml)
A TextView
A DatePicker
A Button
A java class (MainActivity.java)

Step 1 : Design the xml layout in activity_main.xml found in res -> layout folder from Package Explorer .

The code for the above layout is given below :

activity_main.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Choose the date" />
    
    <DatePicker 
        android:id="@+id/dp"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        />
    
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/btnok"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="OK" 
        />

</LinearLayout>

Note that the ids for DatePicker and Button are dp and btnok which will be needed in the Java Code .

Step 2 : The Java code for the layout is defined in MainActivity.java found in src folder .

MainActivity.java

package com.mia.datepickerexample;

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.DatePicker;
import android.widget.Toast;

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

    DatePicker datepicker;
    Button btnok;
    
    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
        
        datepicker = (DatePicker)findViewById(R.id.dp);
       
        btnok = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnok);
        
        btnok.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            
            public void onClick(View v) {
                // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this,"Selected Day is "+datepicker.getDayOfMonth()+"\nSelected Month is "+datepicker.getMonth()+"\nSelected Year is "+datepicker.getYear(),Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
            }
        });
    }

}

Step 3 : Run the Project .

Explanation of the code :

First we design the layout of our page in activity_main.xml using a LinearLayout with vertical orientation .

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

Then we use a TextView to tell the user to select a date and then insert a DatePicker with id as dp .

<TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Choose the date" />
    
    <DatePicker 
        android:id="@+id/dp"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_margin="5dp"
        />

We now add a OK button with id as btnok at the end and close the LinearLayout braces

<Button
        android:id="@+id/btnok"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="OK" 
        />

When we design the java class in MainActivity.java we first make variables of the DatePicker and Button by using the function setViewById .

datepicker = (DatePicker)findViewById(R.id.dp);
        btnok = (Button)findViewById(R.id.btnok);

Then we call the setOnClickListener() method with the object of the button (btnok) which defines the action of the button when it is pressed .

btnok.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
            
            public void onClick(View v) {

We define a Toast in the onClick method which displays the selected Day, Month and Year from the DatePicker (datepicker) by using the functions getDayOfMonth() ,getMonth() and getYear() for the Day, Month and Year respectively .

Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this,"Selected
 Day is "+datepicker.getDayOfMonth()+"\nSelected Month is 
"+datepicker.getMonth()+"\nSelected Year is 
"+datepicker.getYear(),Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

Download the Complete Source Code

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6 September 2014