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TheDateFormat
class allows you to format dates and times with predefined styles in a locale-sensitive manner. The sections that follow demonstrate how to use the
DateFormat
class with a program calledDateFormatDemo.java
.
Formatting dates with theDateFormat
class is a two-step process. First, you create a formatter with thegetDateInstance
method. Second, you invoke theformat
method, which returns aString
containing the formatted date. The following example formats today's date by calling these two methods:Date today; String dateOut; DateFormat dateFormatter; dateFormatter = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, currentLocale); today = new Date(); dateOut = dateFormatter.format(today); System.out.println(dateOut + " " + currentLocale.toString());The output generated by this code follows. Notice that the formats of the dates vary with
Locale
. SinceDateFormat
is locale-sensitive, it takes care of the formatting details for eachLocale
.9 avr 98 fr_FR 9.4.1998 de_DE 09-Apr-98 en_USThe preceding code example specified the
DEFAULT
formatting style. TheDEFAULT
style is just one of the predefined formatting styles that theDateFormat
class provides, as follows:
- DEFAULT
- SHORT
- MEDIUM
- LONG
- FULL
The following table shows how dates are formatted for each style with the U.S. and French locales:
Sample Date Formats
Style U.S. Locale French Locale DEFAULT
10-Apr-98 10 avr 98 SHORT
4/10/98 10/04/98 MEDIUM
10-Apr-98 10 avr 98 LONG
April 10, 1998 10 avril 1998 FULL
Friday, April 10, 1998 vendredi, 10 avril 1998
Date
objects represent both dates and times. Formatting times with theDateFormat
class is similar to formatting dates, except that you create the formatter with thegetTimeInstance
method, as follows:DateFormat timeFormatter = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, currentLocale);The table that follows shows the various predefined format styles for the U.S. and German locales:
Sample Time Formats
Style U.S. Locale German Locale DEFAULT
3:58:45 PM 15:58:45 SHORT
3:58 PM 15:58 MEDIUM
3:58:45 PM 15:58:45 LONG
3:58:45 PM PDT 15:58:45 GMT+02:00 FULL
3:58:45 oclock PM PDT 15.58 Uhr GMT+02:00
To display a date and time in the sameString
, create the formatter with thegetDateTimeInstance
method. The first parameter is the date style, and the second is the time style. The third parameter is theLocale
. Here's a quick example:DateFormat formatter = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.LONG, DateFormat.LONG, currentLocale);The following table shows the date and time formatting styles for the U.S. and French locales:
Sample Date and Time Formats
Style U.S. Locale French Locale DEFAULT
25-Jun-98 1:32:19 PM 25 jun 98 22:32:20 SHORT
6/25/98 1:32 PM 25/06/98 22:32 MEDIUM
25-Jun-98 1:32:19 PM 25 jun 98 22:32:20 LONG
June 25, 1998 1:32:19 PM PDT 25 juin 1998 22:32:20 GMT+02:00 FULL
Thursday, June 25, 1998 1:32:19 o'clock PM PDT jeudi, 25 juin 1998 22 h 32 GMT+02:00
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