DateTimeFormat (Joda time 2.1 API)

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org.joda.time.format
Class DateTimeFormat

java.lang.Object
  org.joda.time.format.DateTimeFormat

public class DateTimeFormat
extends Object
extends Object

Factory that creates instances of DateTimeFormatter from patterns and styles.

Datetime formatting is performed by the DateTimeFormatter class. Three classes provide factory methods to create formatters, and this is one. The others are ISODateTimeFormat and DateTimeFormatterBuilder.

This class provides two types of factory:

Pattern provides a DateTimeFormatter based on a pattern string that is mostly compatible with the JDK date patterns.
Style provides a DateTimeFormatter based on a two character style, representing short, medium, long and full.

For example, to use a patterm:

 DateTime dt = new DateTime();
 DateTimeFormatter fmt = DateTimeFormat.forPattern("MMMM, yyyy");
 String str = fmt.print(dt);

The pattern syntax is mostly compatible with java.text.SimpleDateFormat - time zone names cannot be parsed and a few more symbols are supported. All ASCII letters are reserved as pattern letters, which are defined as follows:

 Symbol  Meaning                      Presentation  Examples
 ------  -------                      ------------  -------
 G       era                          text          AD
 C       century of era (>=0)         number        20
 Y       year of era (>=0)            year          1996

 x       weekyear                     year          1996
 w       week of weekyear             number        27
 e       day of week                  number        2
 E       day of week                  text          Tuesday; Tue

 y       year                         year          1996
 D       day of year                  number        189
 M       month of year                month         July; Jul; 07
 d       day of month                 number        10

 a       halfday of day               text          PM
 K       hour of halfday (0~11)       number        0
 h       clockhour of halfday (1~12)  number        12

 H       hour of day (0~23)           number        0
 k       clockhour of day (1~24)      number        24
 m       minute of hour               number        30
 s       second of minute             number        55
 S       fraction of second           number        978

 z       time zone                    text          Pacific Standard Time; PST
 Z       time zone offset/id          zone          -0800; -08:00; America/Los_Angeles

 '       escape for text              delimiter
 ''      single quote                 literal       '

The count of pattern letters determine the format.

Text: If the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used; otherwise a short or abbreviated form is used if available.

Number: The minimum number of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.

Year: Numeric presentation for year and weekyear fields are handled specially. For example, if the count of 'y' is 2, the year will be displayed as the zero-based year of the century, which is two digits.

Month: 3 or over, use text, otherwise use number.

Zone: 'Z' outputs offset without a colon, 'ZZ' outputs the offset with a colon, 'ZZZ' or more outputs the zone id.

Zone names: Time zone names ('z') cannot be parsed.

Any characters in the pattern that are not in the ranges of ['a'..'z'] and ['A'..'Z'] will be treated as quoted text. For instance, characters like ':', '.', ' ', '#' and '?' will appear in the resulting time text even they are not embraced within single quotes.

DateTimeFormat is thread-safe and immutable, and the formatters it returns are as well.

Since:: 1.0
Author:: Brian S O'Neill, Maxim Zhao
See Also:: ISODateTimeFormat, DateTimeFormatterBuilder

Constructor Summary
`protected`	`DateTimeFormat()` Constructor.

Method Summary
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`forPattern(String pattern)` Factory to create a formatter from a pattern string.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`forStyle(String style)` Factory to create a format from a two character style pattern.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`fullDate()` Creates a format that outputs a full date format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`fullDateTime()` Creates a format that outputs a full datetime format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`fullTime()` Creates a format that outputs a full time format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`longDate()` Creates a format that outputs a long date format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`longDateTime()` Creates a format that outputs a long datetime format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`longTime()` Creates a format that outputs a long time format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`mediumDate()` Creates a format that outputs a medium date format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`mediumDateTime()` Creates a format that outputs a medium datetime format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`mediumTime()` Creates a format that outputs a medium time format.
`static String`	`patternForStyle(String style, Locale locale)` Returns the pattern used by a particular style and locale.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`shortDate()` Creates a format that outputs a short date format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`shortDateTime()` Creates a format that outputs a short datetime format.
`static DateTimeFormatter`	`shortTime()` Creates a format that outputs a short time format.

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

Constructor Detail

DateTimeFormat

protected DateTimeFormat()

Constructor.

Since:: 1.1 (previously private)

Method Detail

forPattern

public static DateTimeFormatter forPattern(String pattern)

Factory to create a formatter from a pattern string. The pattern string is described above in the class level javadoc. It is very similar to SimpleDateFormat patterns.

The format may contain locale specific output, and this will change as you change the locale of the formatter. Call DateTimeFormatter.withLocale(Locale) to switch the locale. For example:

 DateTimeFormat.forPattern(pattern).withLocale(Locale.FRANCE).print(dt);

Parameters:: pattern - pattern specification
Returns:: the formatter
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - if the pattern is invalid

forStyle

public static DateTimeFormatter forStyle(String style)

Factory to create a format from a two character style pattern.

The first character is the date style, and the second character is the time style. Specify a character of 'S' for short style, 'M' for medium, 'L' for long, and 'F' for full. A date or time may be ommitted by specifying a style character '-'.

The returned formatter will dynamically adjust to the locale that the print/parse takes place in. Thus you just call DateTimeFormatter.withLocale(Locale) and the Short/Medium/Long/Full style for that locale will be output. For example:

 DateTimeFormat.forStyle(style).withLocale(Locale.FRANCE).print(dt);

Parameters:: style - two characters from the set {"S", "M", "L", "F", "-"}
Returns:: the formatter
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - if the style is invalid

patternForStyle

public static String patternForStyle(String style,
                                     Locale locale)

Returns the pattern used by a particular style and locale.

Parameters:: style - two characters from the set {"S", "M", "L", "F", "-"}; locale - locale to use, null means default
Returns:: the formatter
Throws:: IllegalArgumentException - if the style is invalid
Since:: 1.3