How do I get a formatted date for a specific pattern and locale?

If you want to change formatting styles provided by DateFormat, you can use SimpleDateFormat class. The SimpleDateFormat class is locale-sensitive.

If you instantiate SimpleDateFormat without a Locale parameter, it will format the date and time according to the default Locale. Both the pattern and the Locale determine the format. For the same pattern, SimpleDateFormat may format a date and time differently if the Locale varies.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;

public class SimpleDateFormatChangeLocalePattern {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String pattern = "dd-MMM-yyyy";
        Date today = new Date();

        // Gets a formatted date according to the given pattern.
        // Here only the pattern is passed as argument of the
        // SimpleDateFormat constructor, so it will format the
        // date according to the default Locale.
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);
        String local = sdf.format(today);
        System.out.println("Date in default locale: " + local);

        Locale[] locales = {
                Locale.CANADA,
                Locale.FRANCE,
                Locale.GERMANY,
                Locale.US,
                Locale.JAPAN
        };

        for (Locale locale : locales) {
            // Format a date according to the given pattern for each locale.
            sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern, locale);
            String after = sdf.format(today);
            System.out.println(locale.getDisplayCountry() + " | format: " + after);
        }
    }
}

Here are the variety of output produces when formatting a date in the same date pattern but varies in Locale

Date in default locale: 19-Oct-2021
Canada | format: 19-Oct.-2021
France | format: 19-oct.-2021
Germany | format: 19-Okt.-2021
United States | format: 19-Oct-2021
Japan | format: 19-10月-2021

How do I get default date and time format for a defined country?

The DateFormat class allows you to format dates and times with predefined styles in a locale-sensitive manner. Formatting dates or times with the DateFormat class is a two-step process.

First, you create a formatter with the getDateInstance() method for formatting date or getTimeInstance() method for formatting time or getDateTimeInstance() when you want formatting both date and time.

Second, you invoke the format method, which returns a String containing the formatted date. The following example formats today’s date and time by calling those two methods.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;

public class LocaleDateTime {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Locale[] locales = {
                Locale.CANADA, Locale.FRANCE, Locale.GERMANY, Locale.US, 
                Locale.JAPAN
        };

        Date today = new Date();
        for (Locale locale : locales) {
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.append(locale.getDisplayCountry()).append(System.lineSeparator());
            sb.append("------------------------").append(System.lineSeparator());

            // Gets a DateFormat instance for the specified locale
            // and format a date object by calling the format method.
            DateFormat df = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);
            String date = df.format(today);
            sb.append("Default date format: ").append(date)
                    .append(System.lineSeparator());

            // Gets a DateFormat instance for the specified locale
            // and format a time information by calling the format method.
            DateFormat tf = DateFormat.getTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, locale);
            String time = tf.format(today.getTime());
            sb.append("Default time format: ").append(time)
                    .append(System.lineSeparator());

            System.out.println(sb);
        }

        // Gets date and time formatted value for Italy locale using
        // To display a date and time in the same String, create the
        // formatter with the getDateTimeInstance method.
        // The first parameter is the date style, and the second is
        // the time style. The third parameter is the Locale
        DateFormat dtf = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT,
                DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.ITALY);
        String datetime = dtf.format(today);

        System.out.println("date time format in " +
                Locale.ITALY.getDisplayCountry() + ": " + datetime);
    }
}

Here are the produces output:

Canada
------------------------
Default date format: Oct. 19, 2021
Default time format: 6:11:45 a.m.

France
------------------------
Default date format: 19 oct. 2021
Default time format: 06:11:45

Germany
------------------------
Default date format: 19.10.2021
Default time format: 06:11:45

United States
------------------------
Default date format: Oct 19, 2021
Default time format: 6:11:45 AM

Japan
------------------------
Default date format: 2021/10/19
Default time format: 6:11:45

date time format in Italy: 19 ott 2021, 06:11:45

How do I change the currency symbol?

This example show you how to change the currency symbol for the defined locale using the DecimalFormatSymbols.setCurrencySymbol() method. After changing the currency symbol, the DecimalFormatSymbols instance is passed to the DecimalFormat object which does the formatting.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.text.DecimalFormatSymbols;
import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.util.Locale;

public class CurrencyFormatSymbols {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        double number = 123456.789;

        Locale[] locales = {
                Locale.CANADA, Locale.GERMANY, Locale.UK, Locale.ITALY, Locale.US
        };

        String[] symbols = {"CAD", "EUR", "GBP", "ITL", "USD"};

        for (int i = 0; i < locales.length; i++) {
            // Gets currency's formatted value for each locale
            // without change the currency symbol
            DecimalFormat formatter =
                    (DecimalFormat) NumberFormat.getCurrencyInstance(locales[i]);
            String before = formatter.format(number);

            // Create a DecimalFormatSymbols for each locale and sets
            // its new currency symbol.
            DecimalFormatSymbols symbol = new DecimalFormatSymbols(locales[i]);
            symbol.setCurrencySymbol(symbols[i]);

            // Set the new DecimalFormatSymbols into formatter object.
            formatter.setDecimalFormatSymbols(symbol);

            // Gets the formatted value
            String after = formatter.format(number);
            System.out.println(locales[i].getDisplayCountry() +
                    " | before: " + before + " | after: " + after);
        }
    }
}

Here is are the result of our program:

Canada | before: $123,456.79 | after: CAD123,456.79
Germany | before: 123.456,79 € | after: 123.456,79 EUR
United Kingdom | before: £123,456.79 | after: GBP123,456.79
Italy | before: € 123.456,79 | after: ITL 123.456,79
United States | before: $123,456.79 | after: USD123,456.79

How do I change number format symbols?

You can use the DecimalFormatSymbols class to change the symbols that appear in the formatted numbers. These symbols include the decimal separator which can be changed using the setDecimalSeparator(), the grouping separator which can be change using the setGroupingSeparator() method. You can also alter the minus sign, and the percent sign, among others.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.text.DecimalFormatSymbols;
import java.util.Locale;

public class NumberFormatSymbol {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        DecimalFormat formatter;
        String pattern = "###,###.##";
        double number = 123456.789;

        // Create a DecimalFormatSymbols object for the United States
        // locale.
        DecimalFormatSymbols dfs = new DecimalFormatSymbols(Locale.US);

        // Create a format object with the given pattern without
        // change the locale dfs then format the given value.
        formatter = new DecimalFormat(pattern);
        String before = formatter.format(number);

        // Change the decimal separator and grouping separator symbol.
        dfs.setDecimalSeparator(',');
        dfs.setGroupingSeparator('.');
        dfs.setMinusSign('-');
        dfs.setPercent('%');

        // Create a format object with the given pattern and symbol
        // then format the given value.
        formatter = new DecimalFormat(pattern, dfs);
        String after = formatter.format(number);

        System.out.println("before: " + before + " | after: " + after);
    }
}

How do I change DecimalFormat pattern?

To change the pattern use by the DecimalFormat when formatting a number we can use the DecimalFormat.applyPattern() method call. In this example we use three different patterns to format the given input number. The pattern determines what the formatted number looks like.

package org.kodejava.text;

import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.text.NumberFormat;
import java.util.Locale;

public class FormatterPattern {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String[] patterns = {"###,###,###.##", "000000000.00", "$###,###.##"};

        double before = 1234567.899;

        // To obtain a NumberFormat for a specific locale,
        // including the default locale, call one of NumberFormat's
        // factory methods, such as getNumberInstance(). Then cast
        // it into a DecimalFormat.
        DecimalFormat format =
                (DecimalFormat) NumberFormat.getNumberInstance(Locale.UK);
        for (String pattern : patterns) {
            // Apply the given pattern to this Format object
            format.applyPattern(pattern);

            // Gets the formatted value
            String after = format.format(before);

            System.out.printf("Input: %s, Pattern: %s, Output: %s%n",
                    before, pattern, after);
        }
    }
}

The output of the program shown below:

Input: 1234567.899, Pattern: ###,###,###.##, Output: 1,234,567.9
Input: 1234567.899, Pattern: 000000000.00, Output: 001234567.90
Input: 1234567.899, Pattern: $###,###.##, Output: $1,234,567.9