DateFormat: abbreviation of the month with a period

Question

I have a date format template: MMM yyyy

And I want: if the name of the month is abbreviated, a period is printed after the name. But if the month name is not short, the period is not added.

Example:

• May 2010 should print: May 2010 (without a period) - May is only 3 letters long, so there is no need, because it is not an abbreviation.
• December 2100 is due to print: Dec. 2010 Dec. 2010 (with a period) - December is longer than 3 letters, so a period is required because it is an abbreviation.

Is this possible with a template or do I need to implement it "by hand"?

Answer 1

What you can do is use DateFormatSymbols in your formatting, in which you redefine an array of short months with one that contains "May" instead of "May."

Update: Sorry, I got the last bit wrong, of course, it should be the other way around, the short months were initially “Jan”, “Feb”, etc., and you should replace them with “Jan.”, “Feb.” for every month except May.

Answer 2

I implemented a biziclop solution. - He works.

If someone is interested, here it is:

 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals; import java.text.DateFormat; import java.text.DateFormatSymbols; import java.text.SimpleDateFormat; import java.util.Calendar; import java.util.Date; import java.util.GregorianCalendar; import java.util.Locale; import org.junit.Test; public class DateFormatTest { /** The locale where the tests are for. */ private static final Locale locale = Locale.ENGLISH; /** * Add a dot to all abbricated short months. * * @param dateFormatSymbols * @return */ private final DateFormatSymbols addDotToAbbricationMonths(final DateFormatSymbols dateFormatSymbols) { String[] shortMonths = dateFormatSymbols.getShortMonths(); for (int i = 0; i < shortMonths.length; i++) { if (dateFormatSymbols.getMonths()[i].length() > shortMonths[i].length()) { shortMonths[i] += '.'; } } dateFormatSymbols.setShortMonths(shortMonths); return dateFormatSymbols; } /** pattern under test. */ final DateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MMM yyyy", addDotToAbbricationMonths(new DateFormatSymbols(locale))); /** Scenario: May is only 3 letters long, so there is no dot needed, because it is not an abbreviation. */ @Test public void testShortEnought() { Date firstMay = new GregorianCalendar(2010, Calendar.MAY, 1).getTime(); assertEquals("May 2010", format.format(firstMay)); } /** Scenario: December is more than 3 letters long, so there is a dot needed, because it an abbreviation. */ @Test public void testToLong() { Date firstDecember = new GregorianCalendar(2010, Calendar.DECEMBER, 1).getTime(); assertEquals("Dec. 2010", format.format(firstDecember)); } /** Scenario: if the DateFormatSymbols are changed for this special, it should not influence the other formatter. */ @Test public void noInfluence() { Date firstDecember = new GregorianCalendar(2010, Calendar.DECEMBER, 1).getTime(); assertEquals("Dec 2010", new SimpleDateFormat("MMM yyyy", locale).format(firstDecember)); } }