Class Format

public abstract class Format
extends Object
implements Serializable, Cloneable

Format is an abstract base class for formatting locale-sensitive information such as dates, messages, and numbers.

Format defines the programming interface for formatting locale-sensitive objects into Strings (the format method) and for parsing Strings back into objects (the parseObject method).

Generally, a format's parseObject method must be able to parse any string formatted by its format method. However, there may be exceptional cases where this is not possible. For example, a format method might create two adjacent integer numbers with no separator in between, and in this case the parseObject could not tell which digits belong to which number.

Subclassing

The Java Platform provides three specialized subclasses of Format-- DateFormat, MessageFormat, and NumberFormat--for formatting dates, messages, and numbers, respectively.

Concrete subclasses must implement three methods:

1. format(Object obj, StringBuffer toAppendTo, FieldPosition pos)
2. formatToCharacterIterator(Object obj)
3. parseObject(String source, ParsePosition pos)

These general methods allow polymorphic parsing and formatting of objects and are used, for example, by MessageFormat. Subclasses often also provide additional format methods for specific input types as well as parse methods for specific result types. Any parse method that does not take a ParsePosition argument should throw ParseException when no text in the required format is at the beginning of the input text.

Most subclasses will also implement the following factory methods:

1. getInstance for getting a useful format object appropriate for the current locale
2. getInstance(Locale) for getting a useful format object appropriate for the specified locale

In addition, some subclasses may also implement other getXxxxInstance methods for more specialized control. For example, the NumberFormat class provides getPercentInstance and getCurrencyInstance methods for getting specialized number formatters.

Subclasses of Format that allow programmers to create objects for locales (with getInstance(Locale) for example) must also implement the following class method:

public static Locale[] getAvailableLocales()

And finally subclasses may define a set of constants to identify the various fields in the formatted output. These constants are used to create a FieldPosition object which identifies what information is contained in the field and its position in the formatted result. These constants should be named item_FIELD where item identifies the field. For examples of these constants, see ERA_FIELD and its friends in DateFormat.

Synchronization

Formats are generally not synchronized. It is recommended to create separate format instances for each thread. If multiple threads access a format concurrently, it must be synchronized externally.

Constructors

Format

protected Format()

Sole constructor. (For invocation by subclass constructors, typically implicit.)

Methods

format

public final String format(Object obj)

Formats an object to produce a string. This is equivalent to

format(obj, new StringBuffer(), new FieldPosition(0)).toString();

Parameters:

obj - The object to format

Returns:

Formatted string.

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if the Format cannot format the given object

format

public abstract StringBuffer format(Object obj,
                                    StringBuffer toAppendTo,
                                    FieldPosition pos)

Formats an object and appends the resulting text to a given string buffer. If the pos argument identifies a field used by the format, then its indices are set to the beginning and end of the first such field encountered.

Parameters:

obj - The object to format

toAppendTo - where the text is to be appended

pos - A FieldPosition identifying a field in the formatted text

Returns:

the string buffer passed in as toAppendTo, with formatted text appended

Throws:

NullPointerException - if toAppendTo or pos is null

IllegalArgumentException - if the Format cannot format the given object

formatToCharacterIterator

public AttributedCharacterIterator formatToCharacterIterator(Object obj)

Parameters:

obj - The object to format

Returns:

AttributedCharacterIterator describing the formatted value.

Throws:

NullPointerException - if obj is null.

IllegalArgumentException - when the Format cannot format the given object.

Since:

1.4

parseObject

public abstract Object parseObject(String source,
                                   ParsePosition pos)

Parameters:

source - A String, part of which should be parsed.

pos - A ParsePosition object with index and error index information as described above.

Returns:

An Object parsed from the string. In case of error, returns null.

Throws:

NullPointerException - if pos is null.

parseObject

public Object parseObject(String source)
                   throws ParseException

Parses text from the beginning of the given string to produce an object. The method may not use the entire text of the given string.

Parameters:

source - A String whose beginning should be parsed.

Returns:

An Object parsed from the string.

Throws:

ParseException - if the beginning of the specified string cannot be parsed.

clone

public Object clone()

Creates and returns a copy of this object.

Overrides:

clone in class Object

Returns:

a clone of this instance.

See Also:

Cloneable