Fomating Dates

Question

Hello
I'm having a bit of difficulty formating the current date.
I have a function that sets a variable "transDate" to the current date using Calendar.getInstance()
I then use my toString to print out some other stuff and the transDate variable. So it gives me the whole Gegorian Calendar. All i need is the "hour minute date month and year"
I have tried using the DateFormat but it tells me i can't format Calendar type.
I'll try muking some more but i thought there may be a real simple answer.
Thanks

Answer 1

It is the transDate you defined in setTransDate() is an "automatic" variable, it becomes garbage as soon as setTransDate() is done. The following code works
import java.util.Date;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
class MyDateFormat {
    Date transDate;
    public void setTransDate()
     transDate = new Date();
    public String toString()
     SimpleDateFormat hope = new SimpleDateFormat("hh-mm-a-dd-MMM-yyyy");
     String date = hope.format(transDate);
     //     return("*Account Summary*\n*Account #:"+ acctNum + "\n*Account Name:"+ acctName + "\n*Account Balance:$"+ acctBalance +"\n*Account Type "+ acctType+ "\n*Last Transaction Date:" +date+"\n\n");
     return ("\n*Last Transaction Date:" +date+"\n\n");
    public static void main(String[] args) {
     MyDateFormat d = new MyDateFormat();
     d.setTransDate();
     System.out.println(d.toString());