CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javadatetimelocaletranslate
Debanik Dawn
Debanik Dawn

Reputation: 799

Translate date and time to languages not supported in java.util.Locale

I have text representing date and time in English.

For example: 12 May, 2021 11:50 PM

I want to translate this into various languages that are not natively supported by java.util.Locale API.

Examples of such languages are Bangla, Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, etc.

In Bengali, for example, the above text would translate to: ১২ই মে, ২০২১ এর ১১:৫০ PM

Is there an easy way to do this?

Many thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 605

Answers (2)

Anonymous
Anonymous

Reputation: 86148

TL;DR

For Bangla AKA Bengali:

    Locale loc = Locale.forLanguageTag("bn"); // Bengali/Bangla
    DateTimeFormatter formatter
            = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDateTime(FormatStyle.MEDIUM)
                    .localizedBy(loc)
                    .withDecimalStyle(DecimalStyle.of(loc));

    LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.of(2021, Month.MAY, 12, 23, 50);
    System.out.println(dateTime.format(formatter));

Output is:

১২ মে, ২০২১ ১১:৫০:০০ PM

Details

Java does support the languages you mention.

The localizedBy method that I use was introduced in Java 10. It promises to set the decimal style too, so the call to withDecimalStyle() ought not be necessary, but in my Java 11 it is. I can’t tell whether it’s a bug or what.

You also mentioned Marathi:

    Locale loc = Locale.forLanguageTag("mr"); // Marathi

१२ मे, २०२१, ११:५०:०० म.उ.

For the remaining languages mentioned it seems that my Java 11 doesn’t know the digits to use. So we have to specify those ourselves. Only we only have to specify the digit for 0 (zero). Then Java figures the rest out.

    Locale loc = Locale.forLanguageTag("pa"); // Punjabi
    DateTimeFormatter formatter
            = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDateTime(FormatStyle.MEDIUM)
                    .localizedBy(loc)
                    .withDecimalStyle(DecimalStyle.of(loc)
                            .withZeroDigit('\u0a66'));

੧੨ ਮਈ ੨੦੨੧, ੧੧:੫੦:੦੦ ਬਾ.ਦੁ.

The specifications for the remaining languages mentioned are:

Language Langauge tag Zero digit Output
Telugu te '\u0c66' ౧౨ మే, ౨౦౨౧ ౧౧:౫౦:౦౦ PM
Tamil ta '\u0be6' ௧௨ மே, ௨௦௨௧, பிற்பகல் ௧௧:௫௦:௦௦
Kannada kn '\u0ce6' ಮೇ ೧೨, ೨೦೨೧ ೧೧:೫೦:೦೦ ಅಪರಾಹ್ನ

Parsing your original string

I don’t understand why you have got your date and time as text in English. You should keep your date and time in proper date-time objects like the LocalDateTime object I use above. If you cannot avoid getting a String, parse it. Use this formatter for parsing:

private static final DateTimeFormatter ENGLISH_PARSER
        = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("d MMM, uuuu h:mm a", Locale.ENGLISH);

Except I can’t tell from your example whether the string contains a full month name like August or an abbreviation like Aug (since the month of May only has three letters in its full name). If you get full month name, you will need MMMM instead of MMM. In any case parse like this:

    String dateTimeText = "12 May, 2021 11:50 PM";
    LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateTimeText, ENGLISH_PARSER);
    System.out.println(dateTime);

Output:

2021-05-12T23:50

Upvotes: 3

digvijaykatoch
digvijaykatoch

Reputation: 141

  1. Option 1 is Localization/Internationalization.
  2. Option 2 is using Google Translate API.

Coding yourself

Take a look at UNICODE tables. Link Use it for translating characters.

Combine it with internationalization/localization. These example will help:

Personally, I would create a properties files(as in the examples above) with key value pairs for each character/digit, month, and so on. Then, just convert the time as needed.

Using Google Translate

This answer explains how to use Google translate API for the same purpose. Depending on your tech stack, you should be able to integrate this API. It's free for 300 requests a month.

Upvotes: 1

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