Date Formatting Based on User Locale on Android

Date formatting based on user locale on android

You can use the DateFormat class that formats a date according to the user locale.

Example:

String dateOfBirth = "26/02/1974";
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
Date date = null;
try {
    date = sdf.parse(dateOfBirth);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    // handle exception here !
}
java.text.DateFormat dateFormat = android.text.format.DateFormat.getDateFormat(context);
String s = dateFormat.format(date);

You can use the different methods getLongDateFormat, getMediumDateFormat depending on the level of verbosity you would like to have.

Custom Android date formatting respecting current Locale

Android has DateFormat.getBestDateTimePattern() to achieve this

pattern = DateFormat.getBestDateTimePattern(Locale.getDefault(), "MMMyyyy");
dayMonth = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);

The only downside is the API level of 18. I personally used the result of DateFormat.getMediumDateFormat() as fallback. Alternatively you could just ignore the locale for older devices and use new SimpleDateFormat("MMM yyyy") there as fallback or try to backport this one method.

OP Edit

I tried on Nexus 5x with Android 6 a following code

for (Locale locale : locales) {
   format = android.text.format.DateFormat.getBestDateTimePattern(locale, "MMMyyyy");
   DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(format, locale);
   log.debug("{}: {}", locale.getCountry(), dateFormat.format(new Date()));
}

And here are some result:

• NA: Jul 2016
• AE: يوليو ٢٠١٦
• BG: 07.2016 г.
• CZ: červenec 2016
• FR: Goue 2016
• DE: Juli 2016
• GB: Jul 2016
• FI: heinä 2016
• IT: Lui 2016
• HR: srp 2016.
• RU: июль 2016

How can I format Date with Locale in Android

I am not sure if below code works for you, its written in Scala its almost same in Java.

val malaysia = new Locale("ms","MY","MY")
val cal = Calendar.getInstance(malaysia)
val df = DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance(DateFormat.FULL, DateFormat.FULL, malaysia)
println(df.format(cal.getTime()))

results from above code is

Isnin 23 Mei 2016 9:55:44 AM IST

Show date based on the locale settings

I use DateFormat:

java.text.DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getTimeFormat(context);
String dateString = dateFormat.format(date);

Keep in mind it also returns class named java.text.DateFormat but it's a different class.

Localizing dates in android

    String dateOfBirth = "02/26/1974";
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
    Date date = null;
    try {
        date = sdf.parse(dateOfBirth);
    } catch (Exception e) {
        // handle exception here !
    }
    // get localized date formats
    Log.i(this,"sdf default: "+new SimpleDateFormat().format(date)); // using my phone locale
    DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.US);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat US DEFAULT: "+dateFormat.format(date));
    dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.GERMAN);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat GERMAN DEFAULT: "+dateFormat.format(date));
    dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.DEFAULT, Locale.CHINESE);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat CHINESE DEFAULT: "+dateFormat.format(date));
    dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, Locale.US);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat US SHORT: "+dateFormat.format(date));
    dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, Locale.GERMAN);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat GERMAN SHORT: "+dateFormat.format(date));
    dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.SHORT, Locale.CHINESE);
    Log.i(this,"dateFormat CHINESE SHORT: "+dateFormat.format(date));

output is:

 sdf default: 26.02.74 0:00
 dateFormat US DEFAULT: Feb 26, 1974
 dateFormat GERMAN DEFAULT: 26.02.1974
 dateFormat CHINESE DEFAULT: 1974-2-26
 dateFormat US SHORT: 2/26/74
 dateFormat GERMAN SHORT: 26.02.74
 dateFormat CHINESE SHORT: 74-2-26

How to show date format in both english and arabic?

Setting the Locale to "ar" will convert the date format from English to Arabic.

I have also used DateTimeFormatter , as SimpleDateFormat is outdated

fun parseDate() {
    var formatter: DateTimeFormatter? = null
    val date = "2021-11-03T14:09:31"
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss")
        val dateTime: LocalDateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(date, formatter)
        val formatter2: DateTimeFormatter =
            DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(
                "yyyy, MMM d", Locale("ar")  // set the language in which you want to convert
                                            // For english use Locale.ENGLISH
            )
        Log.e("Date", "" + dateTime.format(formatter2))
    }
}

Note: DateTimeFormatter only works in android 8 and above, to use it below android 8 enable desugaring

Output : 2021, نوفمبر 3

Edit: : If you want to convert numbers also to arabic use withDecimalStyle with the DateTimeFormatter.

 val formatter2: DateTimeFormatter =
                DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern(
                    "d MMM, yyyy",
                    Locale("ar")
                ).withDecimalStyle(
                    DecimalStyle.of(Locale("ar"))
                )

Output: ٣ نوفمبر, ٢٠٢١

How to display date format according to locale?

String hintText = new SimpleDateFormat().toPattern(); // dd/MM/y HH:mm

I know you were asking for just the date, but this was as close as I can get.
The internal rule is localeData.getDateFormat(SHORT) + " " + localeData.getTimeFormat(SHORT) so I guess as long as there is not a locale that has a date format with spaces on it, you can just split the string on a space

Date and time formatting depending on locale

Use android.text.format.DateFormat.getTimeFormat()

ref: http://developer.android.com/reference/android/text/format/DateFormat.html

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