tl;dr
Let the modern java.time classes of JSR 310 automatically generate localized text, rather than hard-coding 12-hour clock and AM/PM.
LocalTime // Represent a time-of-day, without date, without time zone or offset-from-UTC.
.now( // Capture the current time-of-day as seen in a particular time zone.
ZoneId.of( "Africa/Casablanca" )
) // Returns a `LocalTime` object.
.format( // Generate text representing the value in our `LocalTime` object.
DateTimeFormatter // Class responsible for generating text representing the value of a java.time object.
.ofLocalizedTime( // Automatically localize the text being generated.
FormatStyle.SHORT // Specify how long or abbreviated the generated text should be.
) // Returns a `DateTimeFormatter` object.
.withLocale( Locale.US ) // Specifies a particular locale for the `DateTimeFormatter` rather than rely on the JVM’s current default locale. Returns another separate `DateTimeFormatter` object rather than altering the first, per immutable objects pattern.
) // Returns a `String` object.
10:31 AM
Automatically localize
Rather than insisting on 12-hour clock with AM/PM, you may want to let java.time automatically localize for you. Call DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedTime
.
To localize, specify:
FormatStyle
to determine how long or abbreviated should the string be.
Locale
to determine:
- The human language for translation of name of day, name of month, and such.
- The cultural norms deciding issues of abbreviation, capitalization, punctuation, separators, and such.
Here we get the current time-of-day as seen in a particular time zone. Then we generate text to represent that time. We localize to French language in Canada culture, then English language in US culture.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "Asia/Tokyo" ) ;
LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now( z ) ;
// Québec
Locale locale_fr_CA = Locale.CANADA_FRENCH ; // Or `Locale.US`, and so on.
DateTimeFormatter formatterQuébec = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedTime( FormatStyle.SHORT ).withLocale( locale_fr_CA ) ;
String outputQuébec = localTime.format( formatterQuébec ) ;
System.out.println( outputQuébec ) ;
// US
Locale locale_en_US = Locale.US ;
DateTimeFormatter formatterUS = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedTime( FormatStyle.SHORT ).withLocale( locale_en_US ) ;
String outputUS = localTime.format( formatterUS ) ;
System.out.println( outputUS ) ;
See this code run live at IdeOne.com.
10 h 31
10:31 AM
SimpleDateFormat formatDate = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm a");
– Em