CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javadatedate-format
Amir Ghahrai
Amir Ghahrai

Reputation: 619

How to display the year in full when using localization in Java?

private String setDate(int day) {
    Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
    cal.setTime(new Date());
    cal.add(Calendar.DATE, + day);
    DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, locale);
    String formattedDate = df.format(cal.getTime());
    return formattedDate;
}

The above method returns "14/06/12" for Locale.UK and "06/14/12" for Locale.US.

How can I get it to return the year in full, i.e. "14/06/2012" for the US locale and "06/14/2012" for UK locale?

Upvotes: 4

Views: 2177

Answers (3)

dragon66
dragon66

Reputation: 2715

JHS's answer is almost complete. The only thing needs to be done is to make it work for all locales.

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Locale;

class ChangeDateFormat
{
    private String setDate(int day, Locale locale) {
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        cal.add(Calendar.DATE, +day);
        DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, locale);
        if (df instanceof SimpleDateFormat)
        {
            SimpleDateFormat sdf = (SimpleDateFormat) df;
            // To show Locale specific short date expression with full year
            String pattern = sdf.toPattern().replaceAll("y+","yyyy");
            sdf.applyPattern(pattern); 
            return sdf.format(cal.getTime());
        }
        String formattedDate = df.format(cal.getTime());
        return formattedDate;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        ChangeDateFormat cdf = new ChangeDateFormat();        
        System.out.println(cdf.setDate(1, Locale.JAPAN));
    }
}

Following Greg's comments (thanks Greg), here is the relevant note from the javadoc:

"If you want even more control over the format or parsing, (or want to give your users more control), you can try casting the DateFormat you get from the factory methods to a SimpleDateFormat. This will work for the majority of countries; just remember to put it in a try block in case you encounter an unusual one."

Upvotes: 9

JHS
JHS

Reputation: 7871

You will have to get the locale pattern and append the extra yy to the format.

This could help you -

private String setDate(int day) {
  Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
  cal.setTime(new Date());
  cal.add(Calendar.DATE, + day);    
  DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, locale);
  // code modified from here
  SimpleDateFormat sdf = (SimpleDateFormat) df;
  sdf.applyPattern(sdf.toPattern().replace("yy","yyyy")); // replacing to yyyy
  String formattedDate = sdf.format(cal.getTime());
  return formattedDate;
}

This would work for all patterns which return a 2 digit year in the end.

I had sdf.toPattern.concat("yy") which would work for only those Locale who had yy in the end. However Dragon66's idea to use replace("yy", "yyyy") would work for all Locale.

Upvotes: 2

Neil
Neil

Reputation: 55402

You have to hope that your DateFormat is an instance of SimpleDateFormat, so that you can obtain its pattern and change it from two to four years.

Upvotes: 0

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