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
specify how verbose or compact the formatted date or time should be.
The remaining constants, which all end with
_FIELD, specify various fields of formatted dates
and times and are used with the FieldPosition
object that is optionally passed to format( ).
Figure 15-7. java.text.DateFormat
public abstract class
DateFormat extends Format {
// Protected Constructors
protected
DateFormat ( );
// Public Constants
public static final int
AM_PM_FIELD ; =14
public static final int
DATE_FIELD ; =3
public static final int
DAY_OF_WEEK_FIELD ; =9
public static final int
DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH_FIELD ; =11
public static final int
DAY_OF_YEAR_FIELD ; =10
public static final int
DEFAULT ; =2
public static final int
ERA_FIELD ; =0
public static final int
FULL ; =0
public static final int
HOUR0_FIELD ; =16
public static final int
HOUR1_FIELD ; =15
public static final int
HOUR_OF_DAY0_FIELD ; =5
public static final int
HOUR_OF_DAY1_FIELD ; =4
public static final int
LONG ; =1
public static final int
MEDIUM ; =2
public static final int
MILLISECOND_FIELD ; =8
public static final int
MINUTE_FIELD ; =6
public static final int
MONTH_FIELD ; =2
public static final int
SECOND_FIELD ; =7
public static final int
SHORT ; =3
public static final int
TIMEZONE_FIELD ; =17
public static final int
WEEK_OF_MONTH_FIELD ; =13
public static final int
WEEK_OF_YEAR_FIELD ; =12
public static final int
YEAR_FIELD ; =1
// Nested Types
1.4 public static class
Field extends Format.Field;
// Public Class Methods
public static java.util.Locale[ ]
getAvailableLocales ( );
public static final DateFormat
getDateInstance ( );
public static final DateFormat
getDateInstance (int
style );
public static final DateFormat
getDateInstance (int
style ,
java.util.Locale
aLocale );
public static final DateFormat
getDateTimeInstance ( );
public static final DateFormat
getDateTimeInstance (int
dateStyle ,
int
timeStyle );
public static final DateFormat
getDateTimeInstance (int
dateStyle ,
int
timeStyle , java.util.Locale
aLocale );
public static final DateFormat
getInstance ( );
public static final DateFormat
getTimeInstance ( );
public static final DateFormat
getTimeInstance (int
style );
public static final DateFormat
getTimeInstance (int
style ,
java.util.Locale
aLocale );
// Public Instance Methods
public final String
format (java.util.Date
date );
public abstract StringBuffer
format (java.util.Date
date ,
StringBuffer
toAppendTo , FieldPosition
fieldPosition );
public java.util.Calendar
getCalendar ( );
public NumberFormat
getNumberFormat ( );
public java.util.TimeZone
getTimeZone ( );
public boolean
isLenient ( );
public java.util.Date
parse (String
source ) throws ParseException;
public abstract java.util.Date
parse (String
source , ParsePosition
pos );
public void
setCalendar (java.util.Calendar
newCalendar );
public void
setLenient (boolean
lenient );
public void
setNumberFormat (NumberFormat
newNumberFormat );
public void
setTimeZone (java.util.TimeZone
zone );
// Public Methods Overriding Format
public Object
clone ( );
public final StringBuffer
format (Object
obj , StringBuffer
toAppendTo ,
FieldPosition
fieldPosition );
public Object
parseObject (String
source , ParsePosition
pos );
// Public Methods Overriding Object
public boolean
equals (Object
obj );
public int
hashCode ( );
// Protected Instance Fields
protected java.util.Calendar
calendar ;
protected NumberFormat
numberFormat ;
}