Java 8 – How to check whether a given Date/Year is leap year ?

September 13, 2022 SJ Java 8, Java 8 Date/Time 0

In this article, we will learn how to check whether a given Date or LocalDate or Year or Calendar or GregorianCalendar is leap year or not ?

A leap year consists of 366 days with month of February being 29 days and on all other instances a normal year consists of 365 days with month of February being 28 days

Check given Date/Year/Calendar is Leap Year :

  1. Check Leap year for LocalDate
  2. Check Leap year for Year class
  3. Check Leap year for Date/Calendar in a custom way
  4. Check Leap year for GregorianCalendar

1. Check Leap year for LocalDate :

  • LocalDate class has a method isLeapYear() which checks whether the invoking LocalDate is leap year or not and returns result in boolean form either true/false
  • In the below illustration, we are checking for 3 different LocalDate with year being 2022, 2020 and 2024

CheckLeapYear1.java

package in.bench.resources.java8.localdate.examples;

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.Month;

public class CheckLeapYear1 {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// 1. get current LocalDate
		LocalDate localDate1 = LocalDate.now();
		System.out.println("Current LocalDate is :- " + localDate1);


		// 1.1 check leap year ?
		boolean leapYear = localDate1.isLeapYear();
		System.out.println("Current Year (" + localDate1.getYear() + ") is Leap year ? :- "
				+ leapYear);


		// 2. get past LocalDate
		LocalDate localDate2 = LocalDate.of(2020, Month.MARCH, 20);
		System.out.println("\nPast LocalDate is :- " + localDate2);


		// 2.1 check leap year ?
		leapYear = localDate2.isLeapYear();
		System.out.println("Past Year (" + localDate2.getYear() + ") is Leap year ? :- "
				+ leapYear);


		// 3. get future LocalDate
		LocalDate localDate3 = LocalDate.of(2024, Month.FEBRUARY, 16);
		System.out.println("\nFuture LocalDate is :- " + localDate3);


		// 3.1 check leap year ?
		leapYear = localDate3.isLeapYear();
		System.out.print("Future Year (" + localDate3.getYear() + ") is Leap year ? :- "
				+ leapYear);
	}
}

Output:

Current LocalDate is :- 2022-09-12
Current Year (2022) is Leap year ? :- false

Past LocalDate is :- 2020-03-20
Past Year (2020) is Leap year ? :- true

Future LocalDate is :- 2024-02-16
Future Year (2024) is Leap year ? :- true

2. Check Leap year for Year class :

  • In a similar way, Year class has a method isLeap() which checks whether the invoking Year is leap year or not and returns result in boolean form either true/false
  • In the below illustration, we are checking for 3 different Years with year being 2022, 2020 and 2024

CheckLeapYear2.java

package in.bench.resources.java8.localdate.examples;

import java.time.Year;

public class CheckLeapYear2 {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// 1. get current Year
		Year currentYear = Year.now();
		System.out.println("Current Year is :- " + currentYear);


		// 1.1 check leap year ?
		boolean leapYear = currentYear.isLeap();
		System.out.println("Current Year (" + currentYear 
				+ ") is Leap year ? :- " + leapYear);


		// 2. get past Year
		Year pastYear = Year.of(2020);
		System.out.println("\nPast Year is :- " + pastYear);


		// 2.1 check leap year ?
		leapYear = pastYear.isLeap();
		System.out.println("Past Year (" + pastYear
				+ ") is Leap year ? :- " + leapYear);


		// 3. get future Year
		Year futureYear = Year.of(2024);
		System.out.println("\nFuture Year is :- " + futureYear);


		// 3.1 check leap year ?
		leapYear = futureYear.isLeap();
		System.out.print("Future Year (" + futureYear
				+ ") is Leap year ? :- " + leapYear);
	}
}

Output:

Current Year is :- 2022
Current Year (2022) is Leap year ? :- false

Past Year is :- 2020
Past Year (2020) is Leap year ? :- true

Future Year is :- 2024
Future Year (2024) is Leap year ? :- true

3. Check Leap year for Date/Calendar :

  • There are no direct methods available to check whether Date object or Calendar instance is from leap year or not
  • So, to check whether given Date object or Calendar instance is leap year, custom code has to be written with below logic or pseudo code
    1. A year is Leap year -> if it is perfectly divisible by 4 && it isn’t a Century Year
    2. If it is a Century Year, then it should be perfectly divisible by 400
  • Note: we are checking against a current Date and past Calendar instance

CheckLeapYearForDateAndCalendar.java

package in.bench.resources.java8.localdate.examples;

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;

public class CheckLeapYearForDateAndCalendar {

	// main method
	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// 1. get current date/time
		Date date1 = new Date();
		System.out.println("Current Date/time is :- \n" + date1);


		// 1.1 check leap year or not
		boolean boolLeapYear = isLeapYear(date1.getYear());
		System.out.println("\nCurrent Year (" + (1900 + date1.getYear()) + ") is Leap Year ? :- "
				+ boolLeapYear);


		// 2. get Calendar instance
		Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
		calendar.set(2000, 06, 13);
		System.out.println("\nCalendar instance is :- \n" + calendar.getTime());


		// 2.1 check leap year or not
		boolLeapYear = isLeapYear(calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR));
		System.out.print("\nYear (" + calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) + ") is Leap Year ? :- "
				+ boolLeapYear);
	}


	/**
	 * This method checks whether a given year is leap or not ?
	 * 
	 * @param year
	 * @return
	 */
	private static boolean isLeapYear(int year) {

		// 1. A year is Leap year -> if it is perfectly divisible by 4 && it is not Century Year
		// 2. If it is Century Year, then it should be perfectly divisible by 400
		return ((year % 4 == 0) && (year % 100 != 0)) || (year % 400 == 0);
	}
}

Output:

Current Date/time is :- 
Mon Sep 12 22:23:21 IST 2022

Current Year (2022) is Leap Year ? :- false

Calendar instance is :- 
Thu Jul 13 22:23:21 IST 2000

Year (2000) is Leap Year ? :- true

4. Check Leap year for GregorianCalendar :

  • GregorianCalendar class has a method isLeapYear() which checks whether invoking gregorianCalendar object is leap year or not
  • First, extract year part from the GregorianCalendar object and use isLeapYear() method by passing year to check whether given GregorianCalendar object is from leap year or not
  • In the below illustration, we are checking against current GregorianCalendar object

CheckLeapYearForGregorianCalendar.java

package in.bench.resources.java8.localdate.examples;

import java.util.GregorianCalendar;

public class CheckLeapYearForGregorianCalendar {

	public static void main(String[] args) {

		// 1. get GregorianCalendar instance
		GregorianCalendar gregorianCalendar = new GregorianCalendar();
		System.out.println("GregorianCalendar instance is :- \n" 
				+ gregorianCalendar.getTime());


		// 2. check leap year or not
		int year = gregorianCalendar.get(GregorianCalendar.YEAR);
		boolean boolLeapYear = gregorianCalendar.isLeapYear(year);
		System.out.print("\nYear (" + year + ") is Leap Year ? :- " 
				+ boolLeapYear);
	}
}

Output:

GregorianCalendar instance is :- 
Mon Sep 12 22:27:11 IST 2022

Year (2022) is Leap Year ? :- false

Related Articles :

References :

Happy Coding !!
Happy Learning !!

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