Java in a Nutshell, 5th Edition

Name

DateFormat

Synopsis

This class formats and parses dates and times in a locale-specific way. As an abstract class, it cannot be instantiated directly, but it provides a number of static methods that return instances of a concrete subclass you can use to format dates in a variety of ways. The getDateInstance( ) methods return a DateFormat object suitable for formatting dates in either the default locale or a specified locale. A formatting style may also optionally be specified; the constants FULL, LONG, MEDIUM, SHORT, and DEFAULT specify this style. Similarly, the getTimeInstance( ) methods return a DateFormat object that formats and parses times, and the getDateTimeInstance( ) methods return a DateFormat object that formats both dates and times. These methods also optionally take a format style constant and a Locale. Finally, getInstance( ) returns a default DateFormat object that formats both dates and times in the SHORT format.

Once you have created a DateFormat object, you can use the setCalendar( ) and setTimeZone( ) methods if you want to format the date using a calendar or time zone other than the default. The various format( ) methods convert java.util.Date objects to strings using whatever format is encapsulated in the DateFormat object. The parse( ) and parseObject( ) methods perform the reverse operation; they parse a string formatted according to the rules of the DateFormat object and convert it into to a Date object. The DEFAULT, FULL, MEDIUM, LONG, and SHORT constants ...