Challenge：How to implement the Localization of date？

Android Programming (3rd Edition) 18. Localization
1

I’m in China ,the Challenge of ch18 is to implement Chinese date format.I hava debugged that the date of the Android program is always in America.

2

Hey,
Do you want specific patterns or Locale Date Format?
CharSequence chineseDate = DateFormat.format("yyyy年MM月dd日", date);
or

Check this. it works on the emulator. However, I don’t know on another device.

3

Hi zannenkiki,

  1. Please let us know whether you use a physical handset or the emulator.
  2. Please check whether the language settings on the physical handset or the emulator has been set to Chinese.
  3. Please share your CrimeFragment.java/strings.xml/strings.xml(zh) files.

Here is my solution.

In CrimeFragment.java, I use the class SimpleDateFormat instead of the class DateFormat because the constructor of class SimpleDateFormat has a Locale param.
In your case, you can change the Locale.getDefault() to Locale.CHINA or Locale.CHINESE as a remedy if you are not sure the language settings on the physical handset or the emulator.

Here, “R.string.formatted_date” is the magic for the implementation of the localization.

        String dateFormat = getResources().getString(R.string.formatted_date);
        String dateString = new SimpleDateFormat(dateFormat, Locale.getDefault())
                .format(mCrime.getDate());

In strings.xml under dir values, this is the default date format.

    <string name="formatted_date">"EEEE, MMM d, yyyy"</string>

In strings.xml under dir values-zh, this is the specified date format for Chinese language settings. I added “日” in this date format because the localization will help add “月” but lost the “日”.

    <string name="formatted_date">"EEEE，MMMd日，yyyy"</string>
1 Like
4

太棒了，您成功解决了我的问题，非常感谢！

5

@crystalDf @zannenkiki i used a better solution with no string resources required and more flexible to different languages config, here is the code:

public String getLocalizedDateFormatString(Context context, Date date){
    Locale currentLocale;
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.N){
        currentLocale = context.getResources().getConfiguration().getLocales().get(0);
    }else{
        currentLocale = context.getResources().getConfiguration().locale;
    }

    DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG,currentLocale);

    return dateFormat.format(date);
}

I declare this method in Crime class, it worked just fine and i think this is much a easier approach. no hard coded string resource required
Note: the context here i used getApplicationContext as argument. Im not sure if other kind of context is acceptable, feel free to try it out and let us know here

6

Hi @great_gorilla,

I rewrote your method as follows. The “mDate” is a private attribute already defined in the class Crime. Just FYI.

By the way, I prefer using the string resource since it provides the flexibility like the customized week info in the date.

    public String getFormattedDate() {

        LocaleListCompat localeListCompat = ConfigurationCompat.getLocales(Resources.getSystem().getConfiguration());

        DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance(DateFormat.LONG, localeListCompat.get(0));

        return dateFormat.format(mDate);
    }