How can I format date by locale in Java?

Question

I need to format date to app that has many languages, what is best way to format date, because every country has different kind of date formatting, so is it possible to format date by locale?

Answer 1

SimpleDateFormat has a constructor which takes the locale, have you tried that?

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

Something like new SimpleDateFormat("your-pattern-here", Locale.getDefault());

Answer 2

Yes, using DateFormat.getDateInstance(int style, Locale aLocale) This displays the current date in a locale-specific way.

So, for example:

DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, yourLocale);
String formattedDate = df.format(yourDate);

See the docs for the exact meaning of the style parameter (SHORT, MEDIUM, etc)

Answer 3

Take a look at java.text.DateFormat. Easier to use (with a bit less power) is the derived class, java.text.SimpleDateFormat

And here is a good intro to Java internationalization: http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/i18n/index.html (the "Formatting" section addressing your problem, and more).

Answer 4

I agree with Laura and the SimpleDateFormat which is the best way to manage Dates in java. You can set the pattern and the locale. Plus you can have a look at this wikipedia article about Date in the world -there are not so many different ways to use it; typically USA / China / rest of the world -