Time Format Syntax

Table 1 is an excerpt from the javadoc of the java.text.SimpleDateFormat class. It provides details about all of the possible formatting capabilities. To specify the time format, use a time pattern string. In this pattern, all ASCII letters are reserved as pattern letters, which are defined in Table 1.
Table 1. Time Format Syntax
Symbol Meaning Presentation Example
G era designator (Text) AD
y year (Number) 2001
M month in year (Text & Number) April & 01
d day in month (Number) 10
h hour in a.m./p.m. (1-12) (Number) 12
H hour in day (0-23) (Number) 0
m minute in hour (Number) 30
s second in minute (Number) 55
S millisecond (Number) 978
E day in week (Text) Tuesday
D day in year (Number) 189
F day of week in month (Number) 2 (2nd Wed in July)
w week in year (Number) 27
W week in month (Number) 2
a a.m./p.m. marker (Text) PM
k hour in day (1-24) (Number) 24
K hour in a.m./p.m. (0-11) (Number) 0
z time zone (Text) Pacific Standard Time
' escape for text (Delimiter)  
' ' single quotation mark (Literal) '
The count of pattern letters determines the format in the following way:
  • Text: If the presentation is in text and 4 or more pattern letters exist, then use the full form. If fewer than 4 pattern letters exist, then use the short or abbreviated form, if one exists.
  • Numeric: If the presentation is numeric, then the field contains the minimum number of digits. Shorter numbers are zero-padded to this amount.
    Note: The year is handled differently. If the count of contents of the y field is 2, then the year is truncated to 2 digits.
  • Text and numeric: If the presentation contains 3 or more bytes, use text, otherwise use numerics.
Any characters in the pattern that are not in the ranges of 'a' - 'z' and 'A' - 'Z'] are treated as quoted text. For example, the following characters are displayed in the resulting time text (even if they are not within single quotation marks):
  • ':'
  • '.'
  • ' '
  • '#'
  • '@'
Patterns containing a pattern letter that is not valid result in a thrown exception during formatting or parsing.
The examples in Table 2 use a US Location.
Table 2. Examples of Time and Date Formatting.
Format Pattern Result
"yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z" 2001.04.01 AD at 15:08:56 PDT
"EEE, MMM d, ''yy" Sun, April 01, '01
"h:mm a" 12:08 PM
"hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz" 12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time
"K:mm a, z" 0:00 PM, PST
"yyyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa" 2001.April.01 AD 12:08 PM