Class java.text.SimpleDateFormat

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java.lang.Object
   |
   +----java.text.Format
           |
           +----java.text.DateFormat
                   |
                   +----java.text.SimpleDateFormat

public class SimpleDateFormat** extends DateFormat

SimpleDateFormat is a concrete class for formatting and parsing dates in a locale-sensitive manner. It allows for formatting (millis -> text), parsing (text -> millis), and normalization.

SimpleDateFormat allows you to start by choosing any user-defined patterns for date-time formatting. However, you are encouraged to create a date-time formatter with either getTimeInstance, getDateInstance, or getDateTimeInstance in DateFormat. Each of these class methods can return a date/time formatter initialized with a default format pattern. You may modify the format pattern using the applyPattern methods as desired. For more information on using these methods, see DateFormat.

Time Format Syntax:

To specify the time format use a time pattern string. In this pattern, all ASCII letters are reserved as pattern letters, which are defined as the following:

 Symbol   Meaning                 Presentation        Example
 ------   -------                 ------------        -------
 G        era designator          (Text)              AD
 y        year                    (Number)            1996
 M        month in year           (Text & Number)     July & 07
 d        day in month            (Number)            10
 h        hour in am/pm (1~12)    (Number)            12
 H        hour in day (0~23)      (Number)            0
 m        minute in hour          (Number)            30
 s        second in minute        (Number)            55
 S        millisecond             (Number)            978
 E        day in week             (Text)              Tuesday
 D        day in year             (Number)            189
 F        day of week in month    (Number)            2 (2nd Wed in July)
 w        week in year            (Number)            27
 W        week in month           (Number)            2
 a        am/pm marker            (Text)              PM
 k        hour in day (1~24)      (Number)            24
 K        hour in am/pm (0~11)    (Number)            0
 z        time zone               (Text)              Pacific Standard Time
 '        escape for text
 ''        single quote                              '

The count of pattern letters determine the format.

(Text): 4 or more pattern letters--use full form, < 4--use short or abbreviated form if one exists.

(Number): the minimum number of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount. Year is handled specially; that is, if the count of 'y' is 2, the Year will be truncated to 2 digits.

(Text & Number): 3 or over, use text, otherwise use number.

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.

A pattern containing any invalid pattern letter will result in a thrown exception during formatting or parsing.

Examples Using the US Locale:

 Format Pattern                         Result
 --------------                         -------
 "yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z"    ->>  1996.07.10 AD at 15:08:56 PDT
 "EEE, MMM d, ''yy"                ->>  Wed, July 10, '96
 "h:mm a"                          ->>  12:08 PM
 "hh 'o''''clock' a, zzzz"         ->>  12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time
 "K:mm a, z"                       ->>  0:00 PM, PST
 "yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa"    ->>  1996.July.10 AD 12:08 PM

Code Sample:

 SimpleTimeZone pdt = new SimpleTimeZone(-8 * 60 * 60 * 1000, "PST");
 pdt.setStartRule(DateFields.APRIL, 1, DateFields.SUNDAY, 2*60*60*1000);
 pdt.setEndRule(DateFields.OCTOBER, -1, DateFields.SUNDAY, 2*60*60*1000);
 // Format the current time.
 SimpleDateFormat formatter
     = new SimpleDateFormat ("yyyy.mm.dd e 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz");
 Date currentTime_1 = new Date();
 String dateString = formatter.format(currentTime_1);
 // Parse the previous string back into a Date.
 ParsePosition pos = new ParsePosition(0);
 Date currentTime_2 = formatter.parse(dateString, pos);

In the example, the time value currentTime_2 obtained from parsing will be equal to currentTime_1. However, they may not be equal if the am/pm marker 'a' is left out from the format pattern while the "hour in am/pm" pattern symbol is used. This information loss can happen when formatting the time in PM.

For time zones that have no names, use strings GMT+hours:minutes or GMT-hours:minutes.

The calendar defines what is the first day of the week, the first week of the year, whether hours are zero based or not (0 vs 12 or 24), and the time zone. There is one common decimal format to handle all the numbers; the digit count is handled programmatically according to the pattern.