Getting pattern string from java SimpleDateFormat

Question

I have a SimpleDateFormat object that I retrieve from some internationalization utilities. Parsing dates is all fine and good, but I would like to be able show a formatting hint to my users like "MM/dd/yyyy". Is there a way to get the formatting pattern from a SimpleDateFormat object?

Answer 1

SimpleDateFormat.toPattern()

Returns a pattern string describing this date format.

Answer 2

If you just need to get a pattern string for the given locale, the following worked for me:

/* Obtain the time format per current locale */  public String getTimeFormat(int longfmt) { Locale loc = Locale.getDefault(); int jlfmt =      (longfmt == 1)?java.text.SimpleDateFormat.LONG:java.text.SimpleDateFormat.SHORT;     SimpleDateFormat sdf =      (SimpleDateFormat)SimpleDateFormat.getTimeInstance(jlfmt, loc); return sdf.toLocalizedPattern(); }  /* Obtain the date format per current locale */  public String getDateFormat(int longfmt) { Locale loc = Locale.getDefault(); int jlfmt =      (longfmt == 1)?java.text.SimpleDateFormat.LONG:java.text.SimpleDateFormat.SHORT;     SimpleDateFormat sdf =      (SimpleDateFormat)SimpleDateFormat.getDateInstance(jlfmt, loc); return sdf.toLocalizedPattern(); } 

getDateInstance and getTimeInstance for the given locale are key here.