- All Implemented Interfaces:
- Serializable,- Cloneable
SimpleDateFormat is a concrete class for formatting and
 parsing dates in a locale-sensitive manner. It allows for formatting
 (date → text), parsing (text → date), and normalization.
 
 SimpleDateFormat allows you to start by choosing
 any user-defined patterns for date-time formatting. However, you
 are encouraged to create a date-time formatter with either
 getTimeInstance, getDateInstance, or
 getDateTimeInstance in DateFormat. Each
 of these class methods can return a date/time formatter initialized
 with a default format pattern. You may modify the format pattern
 using the applyPattern methods as desired.
 For more information on using these methods, see
 DateFormat.
 
Date and Time Patterns
 Date and time formats are specified by date and time pattern
 strings.
 Within date and time pattern strings, unquoted letters from
 'A' to 'Z' and from 'a' to
 'z' are interpreted as pattern letters representing the
 components of a date or time string.
 Text can be quoted using single quotes (') to avoid
 interpretation.
 "''" represents a single quote.
 All other characters are not interpreted; they're simply copied into the
 output string during formatting or matched against the input string
 during parsing.
 
 The following pattern letters are defined (all other characters from
 'A' to 'Z' and from 'a' to
 'z' are reserved):
 
Pattern letters are usually repeated, as their number determines the exact presentation:
Letter Date or Time Component Presentation Examples GEra designator Text ADyYear Year 1996;96YWeek year Year 2009;09MMonth in year (context sensitive) Month July;Jul;07LMonth in year (standalone form) Month July;Jul;07wWeek in year Number 27WWeek in month Number 2DDay in year Number 189dDay in month Number 10FDay of week in month Number 2EDay name in week Text Tuesday;TueuDay number of week (1 = Monday, ..., 7 = Sunday) Number 1aAm/pm marker Text PMHHour in day (0-23) Number 0kHour in day (1-24) Number 24KHour in am/pm (0-11) Number 0hHour in am/pm (1-12) Number 12mMinute in hour Number 30sSecond in minute Number 55SMillisecond Number 978zTime zone General time zone Pacific Standard Time;PST;GMT-08:00ZTime zone RFC 822 time zone -0800XTime zone ISO 8601 time zone -08;-0800;-08:00
- Text:
     For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 4 or more,
     the full form is used; otherwise a short or abbreviated form
     is used if available.
     For parsing, both forms are accepted, independent of the number
     of pattern letters.
- Number:
     For formatting, the number of pattern letters is the minimum
     number of digits, and shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.
     For parsing, the number of pattern letters is ignored unless
     it's needed to separate two adjacent fields.
- Year:
     If the formatter's Calendaris the Gregorian calendar, the following rules are applied.
 - For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 2, the year is truncated to 2 digits; otherwise it is interpreted as a number.
- For parsing, if the number of pattern letters is more than 2, the year is interpreted literally, regardless of the number of digits. So using the pattern "MM/dd/yyyy", "01/11/12" parses to Jan 11, 12 A.D.
- For parsing with the abbreviated year pattern ("y" or "yy"),
         SimpleDateFormatmust interpret the abbreviated year relative to some century. It does this by adjusting dates to be within 80 years before and 20 years after the time theSimpleDateFormatinstance is created. For example, using a pattern of "MM/dd/yy" and aSimpleDateFormatinstance created on Jan 1, 1997, the string "01/11/12" would be interpreted as Jan 11, 2012 while the string "05/04/64" would be interpreted as May 4, 1964. During parsing, only strings consisting of exactly two digits, as defined byCharacter.isDigit(char), will be parsed into the default century. Any other numeric string, such as a one digit string, a three or more digit string, or a two digit string that isn't all digits (for example, "-1"), is interpreted literally. So "01/02/3" or "01/02/003" are parsed, using the same pattern, as Jan 2, 3 AD. Likewise, "01/02/-3" is parsed as Jan 2, 4 BC.
 
 
 If week year'Y'is specified and the calendar doesn't support any week years, the calendar year ('y') is used instead. The support of week years can be tested with a call togetCalendar().isWeekDateSupported().
- Month:
     If the number of pattern letters is 3 or more, the month is
     interpreted as text; otherwise,
     it is interpreted as a number.
 - Letter M produces context-sensitive month names, such as the
         embedded form of names. Letter M is context-sensitive in the
         sense that when it is used in the standalone pattern, for example,
         "MMMM", it gives the standalone form of a month name and when it is
         used in the pattern containing other field(s), for example, "d MMMM",
         it gives the format form of a month name. For example, January in the
         Catalan language is "de gener" in the format form while it is "gener"
         in the standalone form. In this case, "MMMM" will produce "gener" and
         the month part of the "d MMMM" will produce "de gener". If a
         DateFormatSymbolshas been set explicitly with constructorSimpleDateFormat(String,DateFormatSymbols)or methodsetDateFormatSymbols(DateFormatSymbols), the month names given by theDateFormatSymbolsare used.
- Letter L produces the standalone form of month names.
 
- Letter M produces context-sensitive month names, such as the
         embedded form of names. Letter M is context-sensitive in the
         sense that when it is used in the standalone pattern, for example,
         "MMMM", it gives the standalone form of a month name and when it is
         used in the pattern containing other field(s), for example, "d MMMM",
         it gives the format form of a month name. For example, January in the
         Catalan language is "de gener" in the format form while it is "gener"
         in the standalone form. In this case, "MMMM" will produce "gener" and
         the month part of the "d MMMM" will produce "de gener". If a
         
- General time zone:
     Time zones are interpreted as text if they have
     names. For time zones representing a GMT offset value, the
     following syntax is used:
     GMTOffsetTimeZone:Hours must be between 0 and 23, and Minutes must be between 00 and 59. The format is locale independent and digits must be taken from the Basic Latin block of the Unicode standard.GMTSign Hours:Minutes Sign: one of+ -Hours: Digit Digit Digit Minutes: Digit Digit Digit: one of0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9For parsing, RFC 822 time zones are also accepted. 
- RFC 822 time zone:
     For formatting, the RFC 822 4-digit time zone format is used:
     RFC822TimeZone: Sign TwoDigitHours Minutes TwoDigitHours: Digit DigitTwoDigitHours must be between 00 and 23. Other definitions are as for general time zones.For parsing, general time zones are also accepted. 
- ISO 8601 Time zone:
     The number of pattern letters designates the format for both formatting
     and parsing as follows:
     ISO8601TimeZone: OneLetterISO8601TimeZone TwoLetterISO8601TimeZone ThreeLetterISO8601TimeZone OneLetterISO8601TimeZone: Sign TwoDigitHoursOther definitions are as for general time zones or RFC 822 time zones.ZTwoLetterISO8601TimeZone: Sign TwoDigitHours MinutesZThreeLetterISO8601TimeZone: Sign TwoDigitHours:MinutesZFor formatting, if the offset value from GMT is 0, "Z"is produced. If the number of pattern letters is 1, any fraction of an hour is ignored. For example, if the pattern is"X"and the time zone is"GMT+05:30","+05"is produced.For parsing, "Z"is parsed as the UTC time zone designator. General time zones are not accepted.If the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, IllegalArgumentExceptionis thrown when constructing aSimpleDateFormator applying a pattern.
SimpleDateFormat also supports localized date and time
 pattern strings. In these strings, the pattern letters described above
 may be replaced with other, locale dependent, pattern letters.
 SimpleDateFormat does not deal with the localization of text
 other than the pattern letters; that's up to the client of the class.
 Examples
The following examples show how date and time patterns are interpreted in the U.S. locale. The given date and time are 2001-07-04 12:08:56 local time in the U.S. Pacific Time time zone.
Date and Time Pattern Result "yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z"2001.07.04 AD at 12:08:56 PDT"EEE, MMM d, ''yy"Wed, Jul 4, '01"h:mm a"12:08 PM"hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz"12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time"K:mm a, z"0:08 PM, PDT"yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa"02001.July.04 AD 12:08 PM"EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z"Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:08:56 -0700"yyMMddHHmmssZ"010704120856-0700"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-0700"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX"2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-07:00"YYYY-'W'ww-u"2001-W27-3
Synchronization
Date formats are not synchronized. It is recommended to create separate format instances for each thread. If multiple threads access a format concurrently, it must be synchronized externally.
- API Note:
- Consider using DateTimeFormatteras an immutable and thread-safe alternative.
- Since:
- 1.1
- See Also:
- 
Nested Class SummaryNested classes/interfaces declared in class java.text.DateFormatDateFormat.Field
- 
Field SummaryFields declared in class java.text.DateFormatAM_PM_FIELD, calendar, DATE_FIELD, DAY_OF_WEEK_FIELD, DAY_OF_WEEK_IN_MONTH_FIELD, DAY_OF_YEAR_FIELD, DEFAULT, ERA_FIELD, FULL, HOUR_OF_DAY0_FIELD, HOUR_OF_DAY1_FIELD, HOUR0_FIELD, HOUR1_FIELD, LONG, MEDIUM, MILLISECOND_FIELD, MINUTE_FIELD, MONTH_FIELD, numberFormat, SECOND_FIELD, SHORT, TIMEZONE_FIELD, WEEK_OF_MONTH_FIELD, WEEK_OF_YEAR_FIELD, YEAR_FIELD
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Constructor SummaryConstructorsConstructorDescriptionConstructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the default pattern and date format symbols for the defaultFORMATlocale.SimpleDateFormat(String pattern) Constructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and the default date format symbols for the defaultFORMATlocale.SimpleDateFormat(String pattern, DateFormatSymbols formatSymbols) Constructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and date format symbols.SimpleDateFormat(String pattern, Locale locale) Constructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and the default date format symbols for the given locale.
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Method SummaryModifier and TypeMethodDescriptionvoidapplyLocalizedPattern(String pattern) Applies the given localized pattern string to this date format.voidapplyPattern(String pattern) Applies the given pattern string to this date format.clone()Creates a copy of thisSimpleDateFormat.booleanCompares the given object with thisSimpleDateFormatfor equality.format(Date date, StringBuffer toAppendTo, FieldPosition pos) Formats the givenDateinto a date/time string and appends the result to the givenStringBuffer.Formats an Object producing anAttributedCharacterIterator.Returns the beginning date of the 100-year period 2-digit years are interpreted as being within.Gets a copy of the date and time format symbols of this date format.inthashCode()Returns the hash code value for thisSimpleDateFormatobject.parse(String text, ParsePosition pos) Parses text from a string to produce aDate.voidset2DigitYearStart(Date startDate) Sets the 100-year period 2-digit years will be interpreted as being in to begin on the date the user specifies.voidsetDateFormatSymbols(DateFormatSymbols newFormatSymbols) Sets the date and time format symbols of this date format.Returns a localized pattern string describing this date format.Returns a pattern string describing this date format.Methods declared in class java.text.DateFormatformat, format, getAvailableLocales, getCalendar, getDateInstance, getDateInstance, getDateInstance, getDateTimeInstance, getDateTimeInstance, getDateTimeInstance, getInstance, getNumberFormat, getTimeInstance, getTimeInstance, getTimeInstance, getTimeZone, isLenient, parse, parseObject, setCalendar, setLenient, setNumberFormat, setTimeZoneMethods declared in class java.text.Formatformat, parseObject
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Constructor Details- 
SimpleDateFormatpublic SimpleDateFormat()Constructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the default pattern and date format symbols for the defaultFORMATlocale. Note: This constructor may not support all locales. For full coverage, use the factory methods in theDateFormatclass.
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SimpleDateFormatConstructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and the default date format symbols for the defaultFORMATlocale. Note: This constructor may not support all locales. For full coverage, use the factory methods in theDateFormatclass.This is equivalent to calling SimpleDateFormat(pattern, Locale.getDefault(Locale.Category.FORMAT)).- Parameters:
- pattern- the pattern describing the date and time format
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given pattern is null
- IllegalArgumentException- if the given pattern is invalid
- See Also:
 
- 
SimpleDateFormatConstructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and the default date format symbols for the given locale. Note: This constructor may not support all locales. For full coverage, use the factory methods in theDateFormatclass.- Parameters:
- pattern- the pattern describing the date and time format
- locale- the locale whose date format symbols should be used
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given pattern or locale is null
- IllegalArgumentException- if the given pattern is invalid
 
- 
SimpleDateFormatConstructs aSimpleDateFormatusing the given pattern and date format symbols.- Parameters:
- pattern- the pattern describing the date and time format
- formatSymbols- the date format symbols to be used for formatting
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given pattern or formatSymbols is null
- IllegalArgumentException- if the given pattern is invalid
 
 
- 
- 
Method Details- 
set2DigitYearStartSets the 100-year period 2-digit years will be interpreted as being in to begin on the date the user specifies.- Parameters:
- startDate- During parsing, two digit years will be placed in the range- startDateto- startDate + 100 years.
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if- startDateis- null.
- Since:
- 1.2
- See Also:
 
- 
get2DigitYearStartReturns the beginning date of the 100-year period 2-digit years are interpreted as being within.- Returns:
- the start of the 100-year period into which two digit years are parsed
- Since:
- 1.2
- See Also:
 
- 
formatFormats the givenDateinto a date/time string and appends the result to the givenStringBuffer.- Specified by:
- formatin class- DateFormat
- Parameters:
- date- the date-time value to be formatted into a date-time string.
- toAppendTo- where the new date-time text is to be appended.
- pos- keeps track on the position of the field within the returned string. For example, given a date-time text- "1996.07.10 AD at 15:08:56 PDT", if the given- fieldPositionis- DateFormat.YEAR_FIELD, the begin index and end index of- fieldPositionwill be set to 0 and 4, respectively. Notice that if the same date-time field appears more than once in a pattern, the- fieldPositionwill be set for the first occurrence of that date-time field. For instance, formatting a- Dateto the date-time string- "1 PM PDT (Pacific Daylight Time)"using the pattern- "h a z (zzzz)"and the alignment field- DateFormat.TIMEZONE_FIELD, the begin index and end index of- fieldPositionwill be set to 5 and 8, respectively, for the first occurrence of the timezone pattern character- 'z'.
- Returns:
- the formatted date-time string.
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if any of the parameters is- null.
 
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formatToCharacterIteratorFormats an Object producing anAttributedCharacterIterator. You can use the returnedAttributedCharacterIteratorto build the resulting String, as well as to determine information about the resulting String.Each attribute key of the AttributedCharacterIterator will be of type DateFormat.Field, with the corresponding attribute value being the same as the attribute key.- Overrides:
- formatToCharacterIteratorin class- Format
- Parameters:
- obj- The object to format
- Returns:
- AttributedCharacterIterator describing the formatted value.
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if obj is null.
- IllegalArgumentException- if the Format cannot format the given object, or if the Format's pattern string is invalid.
- Since:
- 1.4
 
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parseParses text from a string to produce aDate.The method attempts to parse text starting at the index given by pos. If parsing succeeds, then the index ofposis updated to the index after the last character used (parsing does not necessarily use all characters up to the end of the string), and the parsed date is returned. The updatedposcan be used to indicate the starting point for the next call to this method. If an error occurs, then the index ofposis not changed, the error index ofposis set to the index of the character where the error occurred, and null is returned.This parsing operation uses the calendarto produce aDate. All of thecalendar's date-time fields are cleared before parsing, and thecalendar's default values of the date-time fields are used for any missing date-time information. For example, the year value of the parsedDateis 1970 withGregorianCalendarif no year value is given from the parsing operation. TheTimeZonevalue may be overwritten, depending on the given pattern and the time zone value intext. AnyTimeZonevalue that has previously been set by a call tosetTimeZonemay need to be restored for further operations.- Specified by:
- parsein class- DateFormat
- Parameters:
- text- A- String, part of which should be parsed.
- pos- A- ParsePositionobject with index and error index information as described above.
- Returns:
- A Dateparsed from the string. In case of error, returns null.
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if- textor- posis null.
 
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toPatternReturns a pattern string describing this date format.- Returns:
- a pattern string describing this date format.
 
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toLocalizedPatternReturns a localized pattern string describing this date format.- Returns:
- a localized pattern string describing this date format.
 
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applyPatternApplies the given pattern string to this date format.- Parameters:
- pattern- the new date and time pattern for this date format
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given pattern is null
- IllegalArgumentException- if the given pattern is invalid
 
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applyLocalizedPatternApplies the given localized pattern string to this date format.- Parameters:
- pattern- a String to be mapped to the new date and time format pattern for this format
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given pattern is null
- IllegalArgumentException- if the given pattern is invalid
 
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getDateFormatSymbolsGets a copy of the date and time format symbols of this date format.- Returns:
- the date and time format symbols of this date format
- See Also:
 
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setDateFormatSymbolsSets the date and time format symbols of this date format.- Parameters:
- newFormatSymbols- the new date and time format symbols
- Throws:
- NullPointerException- if the given newFormatSymbols is null
- See Also:
 
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cloneCreates a copy of thisSimpleDateFormat. This also clones the format's date format symbols.- Overrides:
- clonein class- DateFormat
- Returns:
- a clone of this SimpleDateFormat
- See Also:
 
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hashCodepublic int hashCode()Returns the hash code value for thisSimpleDateFormatobject.- Overrides:
- hashCodein class- DateFormat
- Returns:
- the hash code value for this SimpleDateFormatobject.
- See Also:
 
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equalsCompares the given object with thisSimpleDateFormatfor equality.- Overrides:
- equalsin class- DateFormat
- Parameters:
- obj- the reference object with which to compare.
- Returns:
- true if the given object is equal to this
 SimpleDateFormat
- See Also:
 
 
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