How do I get localized date pattern string?

Question

It is quite easy to format and parse Java Date (or Calendar) classes using instances of DateFormat.

I could format the current date into a short localized date like this:

DateFormat formatter = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, Locale.getDefault()); String today = formatter.format(new Date()); 

My problem is that I need to obtain this localized pattern string (something like "MM/dd/yy").

This should be a trivial task, but I just couldn't find the provider.

Answer 1

For SimpleDateFormat, You call toLocalizedPattern()

EDIT:

For Java 8 users:

The Java 8 Date Time API is similar to Joda-time. To gain a localized pattern we can use class DateTimeFormatter

DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDate(FormatStyle.MEDIUM);

Note that when you call toString() on LocalDate, you will get date in format ISO-8601

Note that Date Time API in Java 8 is inspired by Joda Time and most solution can be based on questions related to time.

Answer 2

For those still using Java 7 and older:

You can use something like this:

DateFormat formatter = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, Locale.getDefault()); String pattern       = ((SimpleDateFormat)formatter).toPattern(); String localPattern  = ((SimpleDateFormat)formatter).toLocalizedPattern(); 

Since the DateFormat returned From getDateInstance() is instance of SimpleDateFormat. Those two methods should really be in the DateFormat too for this to be less hacky, but they currently are not.