Java - Date Time Format Custom Patterns

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Introduction

DateTimeFormatter class ofPattern() method returns a DateTimeFormatter object with the specified format pattern and locale. 

static DateTimeFormatter ofPattern(String pattern)
static DateTimeFormatter ofPattern(String pattern, Locale locale)

The following Code creates two formatters to format a date in "Month day, Year" format.

The first formatter formats the datetime in the default locale and the second one in the German locale. 

//Get a formatter for the default locale
DateTimeFormatter fmt1 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMMM dd, yyyy");

// Get a formatter for the German locale
DateTimeFormatter fmt2 = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMMM dd, yyyy", Locale.GERMAN);

DateTimeFormatter class withLocale() method returns a DateTimeFormatter object for the specified locale that uses the same pattern.

You could replace the second statement with the following one: 

// Get a formatter for the German locale using the same pattern as fmt1
DateTimeFormatter fmt2 = fmt1.withLocale(Locale.GERMAN);

Pattern

A formatting pattern is a sequence of characters that have special meanings.

For example,

  • MMMM in a pattern uses the fully spelled name of a month, such as January, February, etc.;
  • MMM uses the short form of a month name, such as Jan, Feb, etc.;
  • MM uses two digits month number, such as 01, 02, etc.;
  • M uses one or two digits month number, such as 1, 2, 10, 11, etc.

All letters 'A' to 'Z' and 'a' to 'z' are reserved as pattern letters, although not all are used.

To include a literal string in a pattern, you need to enclose it in single quotes.

To output a single quote, you need to use two consecutive single quotes.

A datetime formatter outputs any non-letter characters, other than [, ] and a single quote, directly.

The following table lists the symbols used in patterns and their meanings.

Symbol
 Description
 Pattern
 Output
G


 Era


 G
GGGG
GGGGG
 AD
Anno Domini
A
u




 Year
It can be a positive or negative number. After an era start
date, it is a positive number. Before an era start date, it is a
negative number. For example, the year value for 2018 AD
is 2018 and the year value for 2018 BC is -2018.

u/uuu/uuuu
uu
uuuuu


2018
12
02018

y



 Year of era
It counts the year forward or backward from the era start
date. It is always a positive number.
In Common Era, year 0 is 1 BC.
y/yyy/yyyy
yy
yyyyy

2018
12
02018

D
 Day of year (1 -366)
 D
 150
M/L



 Month of year



 M
MM
MMM
MMMM
 5
05
Jul
July
d




 Day of month
The pattern d will output values like 1, 2, 10, 29, etc. The
pattern dd will zero-pad the values as 01, 02, 10, 29, etc. to
make them always two digits. The pattern ddd will output
values like 001, 010, 029, etc.
d




 29




Q/q



 Quarter of year



 Q
QQ
QQQ
QQQQ
 3
03
Q3
3rd quarter
Y


 Week-based year


 Y
YY
YYY/YYYY
 2018
12
2018
w
 Week of week-based year
 w
 31
W
 Week of month
 W
 5
E



 Day of week



 E
EE
EEE
EEEEE
 7
07
Sun
Sunday
F
 Day of week in month
 F
 1
a
 AM/PM of day
 a
 AM
h
 Clock hour of AM/PM (1-12)
 h
 7
K
 Hour of AM/PM (0-11)
 K
 7
k
 Clock hour of AM/PM (1-24)
 k
 7
H

 Hour of day (0-23)

 H
HH
 7
07
m
 Minute of hour
 mm
 30
s
 Second of minute
 ss
 12
S
 Fraction of second
 SSSSSSSSS
 000000789
A
 Millisecond of day
 A
 27012000
n
 Nanosecond of second
 n
 789
N
 Nanosecond of day
 N
 27012000000789
V
 Time zone ID
 VV
 America/Chicago
z
 Time zone name
 z
 CDT
Z



 Zone offset
When the zone offset is zero, it outputs '+0000' or '+00:00'
depending on whether you use Z, ZZ, or ZZZ.

Z
ZZ
ZZZ
ZZZZ
 -0500
-0500
-05:00
GMT-05:00
O
 Localized zone offset
 O
 GMT-5
X









 Zone offset
It prints Z for the zone offset Zero.
X outputs only the hour such as '+09';
XX outputs the hour and minute, without a colon such as '+0830';
XXX outputs the hour and minute with a colon such as '+08:30';
XXXX outputs the hour, minute, and optional second, without a
colon such as '+083045';
XXXXX outputs
the hour, minute, and option second, with a colon such as
'+08:30:45'.
XXX









 -05:00









x

 Same as X, except that it prints '+00' for the zone offset
zero, not 'Z'.
xx

 -0500

p




 Pad next
It pads the output of the pattern following it with spaces.
For example, if mm outputs 30, pppmm will output
' 30' and ppppmm will output ' 30'. The number of p
determines the width of the output.
pppmm




 ' 30'




'


 Escape for text
Text within single quotes is output directly. To output a
single quote, use two consecutive single quotes.
'Hello'
'Hello' MMMM

 Hello
Hello July

''
 A single quote
 '''Hello''' MMMM
 'Hello' July
[ ]
 An optional section
 n/a
 n/a
#, {, }
 They are reserved for future use.
 n/a
 n/a

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