Calendar Class (Wrong month! )

[Lilly Wang]

Anybody know why the month that the Calendar class display is one month less than the current month?
e.g.
Calendar ca = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.print( ca.get( Calendar.MONTH ) );
will display 6 instead of 7 (current month is July, it should be 7!)
Thanks in advance!

[Ricardo Marques]

I think it must be because of some historical reasons... Computers have always started counting from zero. The first index of an array is at 0 elements-offset, therefore at index 0.
For months it is the same. When January starts, no months have occured before, so it is at 0 months-offset.
That's why January is Zero. And December is Eleven!
This is merely speculation, but after a while one gets used to counting months from 0 to 11, and it starts to feel really weird if one has to write code lines where it isn't that way.

[Chad McGowan]

The MONTH field has values 0-11, so it is not wrong... just confusing.

[Jessica Sant]

1st thing:
"Lilly"-
Welcome to the JavaRanch! Please adjust your displayed name to match the JavaRanch Naming Policy.
You can change it here.
Thanks! and again welcome to the JavaRanch!
2nd thing:
Check out this blip of code, the Calendar.MONTH is off by one.

import java.util.Calendar;
public class TestCalendar
{
   public static void main( String args[] )
   {
      System.out.println( "January = " + Calendar.JANUARY ); //prints 0
      System.out.println( "February = " + Calendar.FEBRUARY );  //prints 1
      System.out.println( "March = " + Calendar.MARCH ); //prints 2
      System.out.println( "April = " + Calendar.APRIL ); //prints 3
      System.out.println( "May = " + Calendar.MAY ); //prints 4
      System.out.println( "June = " + Calendar.JUNE ); //prints 5
      System.out.println( "July = " + Calendar.JULY ); //prints 6
      System.out.println( "August = " + Calendar.AUGUST ); //prints 7
      System.out.println( "September = " + Calendar.SEPTEMBER ); //prints 8
      System.out.println( "October = " + Calendar.OCTOBER ); //prints 9
      System.out.println( "November = " + Calendar.NOVEMBER ); //prints 10
      System.out.println( "December = " + Calendar.DECEMBER ); //prints 11
   }
}

[ July 12, 2002: Message edited by: Jessica Sant ]

[Lilly Wang]

Jessica,
Sorry! I have updated my display name now. And thanks!
Ricardo and Chad,
Thanks! That makes sense now.