DateField (Lucene 3.6.2 API)

java.lang.Object
- org.apache.lucene.document.DateField

```
@Deprecated
public class DateField
extends Object
```
Deprecated.
If you build a new index, use DateTools or NumericField instead. This class is included for use with existing indices and will be removed in a future release (possibly Lucene 4.0).

Provides support for converting dates to strings and vice-versa. The strings are structured so that lexicographic sorting orders by date, which makes them suitable for use as field values and search terms.
Note that this class saves dates with millisecond granularity, which is bad for TermRangeQuery and PrefixQuery, as those queries are expanded to a BooleanQuery with a potentially large number of terms when searching. Thus you might want to use DateTools instead.
Note: dates before 1970 cannot be used, and therefore cannot be indexed when using this class. See DateTools for an alternative without such a limitation.
Another approach is NumericUtils, which provides a sortable binary representation (prefix encoded) of numeric values, which date/time are. For indexing a Date or Calendar, just get the unix timestamp as long using Date.getTime() or Calendar.getTimeInMillis() and index this as a numeric value with NumericField and use NumericRangeQuery to query it.

Method Summary

All Methods Static Methods Concrete Methods Deprecated Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`static String`	`dateToString(Date date)`	Deprecated. Converts a Date to a string suitable for indexing.
`static String`	`MAX_DATE_STRING()`	Deprecated.
`static String`	`MIN_DATE_STRING()`	Deprecated.
`static Date`	`stringToDate(String s)`	Deprecated. Converts a string-encoded date into a Date object.
`static long`	`stringToTime(String s)`	Deprecated. Converts a string-encoded date into a millisecond time.
`static String`	`timeToString(long time)`	Deprecated. Converts a millisecond time to a string suitable for indexing.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

- Method Detail
  - MIN_DATE_STRING
```
public static String MIN_DATE_STRING()
```
    Deprecated.
  - MAX_DATE_STRING
```
public static String MAX_DATE_STRING()
```
    Deprecated.
  - dateToString
```
public static String dateToString(Date date)
```
    Deprecated.
    
    Converts a Date to a string suitable for indexing.
    
    Throws:
    
    RuntimeException - if the date specified in the method argument is before 1970
  - timeToString
```
public static String timeToString(long time)
```
    Deprecated.
    
    Converts a millisecond time to a string suitable for indexing.
    
    Throws:
    
    RuntimeException - if the time specified in the method argument is negative, that is, before 1970
  - stringToTime
```
public static long stringToTime(String s)
```
    Deprecated.
    
    Converts a string-encoded date into a millisecond time.
  - stringToDate
```
public static Date stringToDate(String s)
```
    Deprecated.
    
    Converts a string-encoded date into a Date object.