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( ).
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;
}
