Date / Time Patterns Preferences

Table 1. Pattern letters
Letter Date or Time Component Presentation Examples
G Era designator Text AD
y Year Year 1996; 96
M Month in year Month July; Jul; 07
w Week in year Number 27
W Week in month Number 2
D Day in year Number 189
d Day in month Number 10
F Day of week in month Number 2
E Day in week Text Tuesday; Tue
a Am / pm marker Text PM
H Hour in day (0-23) Number 0
k Hour in day (1-24) Number 24
K Hour in am / pm (0-11) Number 0
h Hour in am / pm (1-12) Number 12
m Minute in hour Number 30
s Second in minute Number 55
S Millisecond Number 978
z Time zone General time zone Pacific Standard Time; PST; GMT-08:00
Z Time zone RFC 822 time zone -0800

Pattern letters are usually repeated, as their number determines the exact presentation:

  • Text - If the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, the full form is used. Otherwise, a short or abbreviated form is used if available.
  • Number - The number of pattern letters is the minimum number of digits, and shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.
  • Year - If the number of pattern letters is 2, the year is truncated to 2 digits. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number.
  • Month - If the number of pattern letters is 3 or more, the month is interpreted as text. Otherwise, it is interpreted as a number.
  • General time zone - Time zones are interpreted as text if they have names. For time zones representing a GMT offset value, the following syntax is used:
    • GMTOffsetTimeZone - GMT Sign Hours : Minutes
    • Sign - one of + or -
    • Hours - one or two digits
    • Minutes - two digits
    • Digit - one of 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

    Hours must be between 0 and 23, and Minutes must be between 00 and 59. The format is locale independent and digits must be taken from the Basic Latin block of the Unicode standard.

  • RFC 822 time zone: The RFC 822 4-digit time zone format is used:
    • RFC822TimeZone
    • TwoDigitHours

    TwoDigitHours must be between 00 and 23.