RelativeDateTimeFormatter

public final class RelativeDateTimeFormatter
extends Object

Formats simple relative dates. There are two types of relative dates that it handles:

• relative dates with a quantity e.g "in 5 days"
• relative dates without a quantity e.g "next Tuesday"

This API is very basic and is intended to be a building block for more fancy APIs. The caller tells it exactly what to display in a locale independent way. While this class automatically provides the correct plural forms, the grammatical form is otherwise as neutral as possible. It is the caller's responsibility to handle cut-off logic such as deciding between displaying "in 7 days" or "in 1 week." This API supports relative dates involving one single unit. This API does not support relative dates involving compound units. e.g "in 5 days and 4 hours" nor does it support parsing. This class is both immutable and thread-safe.

Here are some examples of use:

 RelativeDateTimeFormatter fmt = RelativeDateTimeFormatter.getInstance();
 fmt.format(1, Direction.NEXT, RelativeUnit.DAYS); // "in 1 day"
 fmt.format(3, Direction.NEXT, RelativeUnit.DAYS); // "in 3 days"
 fmt.format(3.2, Direction.LAST, RelativeUnit.YEARS); // "3.2 years ago"
 
 fmt.format(Direction.LAST, AbsoluteUnit.SUNDAY); // "last Sunday"
 fmt.format(Direction.THIS, AbsoluteUnit.SUNDAY); // "this Sunday"
 fmt.format(Direction.NEXT, AbsoluteUnit.SUNDAY); // "next Sunday"
 fmt.format(Direction.PLAIN, AbsoluteUnit.SUNDAY); // "Sunday"
 
 fmt.format(Direction.LAST, AbsoluteUnit.DAY); // "yesterday"
 fmt.format(Direction.THIS, AbsoluteUnit.DAY); // "today"
 fmt.format(Direction.NEXT, AbsoluteUnit.DAY); // "tomorrow"
 
 fmt.format(Direction.PLAIN, AbsoluteUnit.NOW); // "now"
 

In the future, we may add more forms, such as abbreviated/short forms (3 secs ago), and relative day periods ("yesterday afternoon"), etc.

Summary

Inherited methods

From class java.lang.Object Object clone() Creates and returns a copy of this object. boolean equals(Object obj) Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one. void finalize() Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object. final Class<?> getClass() Returns the runtime class of this Object. int hashCode() Returns a hash code value for the object. final void notify() Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. final void notifyAll() Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. String toString() Returns a string representation of the object. final void wait(long millis, int nanos) Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed. final void wait(long millis) Causes the current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed. final void wait() Causes the current thread to wait until another thread invokes the notify() method or the notifyAll() method for this object.

Public methods

String combineDateAndTime (String relativeDateString, 
                String timeString)

String format (double quantity, 
                RelativeDateTimeFormatter.Direction direction, 
                RelativeDateTimeFormatter.RelativeUnit unit)

String format (RelativeDateTimeFormatter.Direction direction, 
                RelativeDateTimeFormatter.AbsoluteUnit unit)

DisplayContext getCapitalizationContext ()

RelativeDateTimeFormatter.Style getFormatStyle ()

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance (ULocale locale, 
                NumberFormat nf, 
                RelativeDateTimeFormatter.Style style, 
                DisplayContext capitalizationContext)

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance (ULocale locale)

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance ()

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance (Locale locale)

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance (ULocale locale, 
                NumberFormat nf)

RelativeDateTimeFormatter getInstance (Locale locale, 
                NumberFormat nf)

NumberFormat getNumberFormat ()