The java.text package consists of classes and interfaces that are useful for writing internationalized programs that handle local customs, such as date and time formatting and string alphabetization, correctly.

The NumberFormat class formats numbers, monetary quantities, and percentages as appropriate for the default or specified locale. DateFormat formats dates and times in a locale-specific way. The concrete DecimalFormat and SimpleDateFormat subclasses of these classes can be used for customized number, date, and time formatting. MessageFormat allows substitution of dynamic values, including formatted numbers and dates, into static message strings. ChoiceFormat formats a number using an enumerated set of string values. See the Format superclass for a general description of formatting and parsing strings with these classes. Collator compares strings according to the customary sorting order for a locale. BreakIterator scans text to find word, line, and sentence boundaries following locale-specific rules. The Bidi class of Java 1.4 implements the Unicode "bidirectional" algorithm for working with languages such as Arabic and Hebrew that display text right-to-left but display numbers left-to-right.

Interfaces

public interface AttributedCharacterIterator extends CharacterIterator;
public interface CharacterIterator extends Cloneable;

Classes

public class Annotation;
public static class AttributedCharacterIterator.Attribute implements Serializable;
   public static class Format.Field extends AttributedCharacterIterator.Attribute;
      public static class DateFormat.Field extends Format.Field;
      public static class MessageFormat.Field extends Format.Field;
      public static class NumberFormat.Field extends Format.Field;
public class AttributedString;
public final class Bidi;
public abstract class BreakIterator implements Cloneable;
public final class CollationElementIterator;
public final class CollationKey implements Comparable<CollationKey>;
public abstract class Collator implements java.util.Comparator<Object>, Cloneable;
   public class RuleBasedCollator extends Collator;
public class DateFormatSymbols implements Cloneable, Serializable;
public final class DecimalFormatSymbols implements Cloneable, Serializable;
public class FieldPosition;
public abstract class Format implements Cloneable, Serializable;
   public abstract class DateFormat extends Format;
      public class SimpleDateFormat extends DateFormat;
   public class MessageFormat extends Format;
   public abstract class NumberFormat extends Format;
      public class ChoiceFormat extends NumberFormat;
      public class DecimalFormat extends NumberFormat;
public class ParsePosition;
public final class StringCharacterIterator implements CharacterIterator;

Exceptions

public class ParseException extends Exception;