How to set the Eclipse date variable format?

Question

How can I set the format for the ${date} variable which can be used in Eclipse templates?

Edmond

Answer 1

Update February 2016: bug 75981 is officially fixed!
See Jmini's answer below

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Update July 2015, 6 years later:

The bug mentioned below seems fixed in Eclipse 4.x.
Eric Wang comments below:

@date ${id:date('YYYY-MMM-dd')} ${time} 

this give me English datetime format in eclipse 4.

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Original Answer 2009 Eclipse 3.x

Argh! There is a long standing bug just for that: bug 75981

The ${date} variable could be enhanced to accept an argument (similar to other parameterizations added in 3.3M1), e.g. ${d:date(format)}, where format is a pattern for SimpleDateFormat.

The only alternative would be to modify the class SimpleTemplateVariableResolver (as described in this thread), from the package org.eclipse.jface.text.templates. (You have here an example of such an extension).

This thread mentions the sources where you can find the class.

\eclipse\plugins\org.eclipse.platform.source_3.1.0\src\org.eclipse.text_3.1.0\src.zip

Example:

public static class Date extends SimpleTemplateVariableResolver {
/**
* Creates a new date variable
*/
public Date() {
super("date", TextTemplateMessages.getString("GlobalVariables.variable.description.date")); //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ }

protected String resolve(TemplateContext context) {
    //return DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(new java.util.Date());
    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
    return df.format(new java.util.Date()); } }

Ferretti

@date ${id:date('YYYY-MMM-dd')} ${time} this give me English datetime format in eclipse 4.5. – Platyhelminth

@EricWang Thank you for the update. I have updated the answer accordingly. – Ferretti

The update doesn't work for me. I replace the class bit.ly/1NzZfJs in the jar using my custom format. – Gianna

Using Eclipse 4.6. This works for me. I use the SimpleDateFormat to include time also: ${d:date('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss')} – Disconnection

Answer 2

You could tell Eclipse to use a specific locale different from that of your operating system. Eclipse 3.5 (64 bit) doesn't use the MacOS X region setting. MacOS X english installation language with Germany as country provides a wrong date format.

You can fix it for your Eclipse installation when you append following lines to your eclipse.ini:

-Duser.language=de
-Duser.region=DE

Herefordshire

Answer 3

I have fixed Bug 75981 with Eclipse Neon M5. You can download this Milestone Release here:

http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/index-developer.php

… or wait until June 2016 for the official Neon Release.

Here a quick description of how it works:

• As before you can use the date variable with no argument. Example: ${date}
• You can use the variable with additional arguments. In this case you will need to name the variable (since you are not reusing the date somewhere else, the name of the variable doesn't matter). Example: ${mydate:date}
  • The first parameter is the date format. Example: ${d:date('yyyy-MM-dd')}
  • The second parameter is the locale. Example: ${maDate:date('EEEE dd MMMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z', 'fr')}

More info about this feature on my blog: Bug 75981 is fixed!

Container

Well done! +1. I have referenced your answer in mine, for more visibility. – Ferretti

Can a similar formatting option be used with ${time}? – Concierge

Ah, it looks like I can just include the time formatting in the SimpleDateFormat so I won't even need to use ${time}. – Concierge

@FelixBembrick Yeah, I also used the SimpleDateFormat for date-time: ${d:date('yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss')} – Disconnection

Answer 4

Additional information for those stumbling over this lately (like me):

For ISO 8601 date format, one can use the language settings fr-CA.

Coatbridge

append this line to your eclipse.ini:-Duser.language=fr-ca, then the date format will be "2014-08-07". – Trackman

Small disadvantage: there are a few locations where you get french date format in the GUI, too. Example: 14-10-27 (comment's date) in compare local history. – Coatbridge