How to format DateTime in Flutter

How to Format DateTime in Flutter

So you want to display the current DateTime in a Text widget in Flutter, but in a different format? No worries, we've got you covered! 🕒📅

The Current Approach

Currently, you're using the following code snippet to display the current DateTime:

DateTime now = DateTime.now();
currentTime = new DateTime(now.year, now.month, now.day, now.hour, now.minute);
Text('$currentTime'),

The Result

The code above produces the DateTime in the format YYYY-MM-JJ HH-MM:00.000. However, you want to remove the :00.000 part. Let's find a solution! 🤔

Solution: Formatting DateTime

To format DateTime in Flutter, you can utilize the intl package from the Flutter SDK. This package provides a DateFormat class that allows you to easily format DateTime objects into various string representations.

Here's how you can modify your code to achieve the desired format:

import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

DateTime now = DateTime.now();
String formattedTime = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm').format(now);
Text('$formattedTime'),

In the code snippet above, we've imported the intl package and used the DateFormat class to format the DateTime. We specified the desired format as 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm', which will give us YYYY-MM-JJ HH-MM.

Putting It All Together

Let's recap the new code snippet that will give you the desired DateTime format:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:intl/intl.dart';

DateTime now = DateTime.now();
String formattedTime = DateFormat('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm').format(now);

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(
          title: Text('Formatted DateTime'),
        ),
        body: Center(
          child: GestureDetector(
            onTap: () {
              showDialog(
                context: context,
                builder: (BuildContext context) {
                  return AlertDialog(
                    title: Text('Formatted DateTime'),
                    content: Text('$formattedTime'),
                    actions: <Widget>[
                      FlatButton(
                        child: Text('OK'),
                        onPressed: () {
                          Navigator.of(context).pop();
                        },
                      ),
                    ],
                  );
                },
              );
            },
            child: Text('Tap Me!'),
          ),
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

void main() {
  runApp(MyApp());
}

In this updated code snippet, we've created a Flutter app with a button that displays an AlertDialog when tapped. Inside the AlertDialog, we display the formatted DateTime using the Text widget.

Conclusion

Formatting DateTime in Flutter doesn't have to be complicated. By utilizing the intl package and the DateFormat class, you can easily achieve the desired format.

Now you're ready to impress your users with beautifully formatted DateTimes in your Flutter app! 😄📅

If you found this blog post helpful, don't forget to share it with your fellow Flutter enthusiasts! And if you have any other Flutter-related questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

Happy Fluttering! 👍✨