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<!--
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/*
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* Copyright (c) 2012, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
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* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
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*
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* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
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* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
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* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
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*
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* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
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* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
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* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
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* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
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* accompanied this code).
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*
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* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
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/*
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* This file is available under and governed by the GNU General Public
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* License version 2 only, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
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* However, the following notice accompanied the original version of this
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* file:
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*
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* Copyright (c) 2008-2012, Stephen Colebourne & Michael Nascimento Santos
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*
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* All rights reserved.
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* * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
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* this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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* * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
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* * Neither the name of JSR-310 nor the names of its contributors
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* SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
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*/
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-->
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<body>
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<p>
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A new Date and Time API for Java.
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The design includes a relatively large number of classes and methods,
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however each follows a common design language, especially in method prefixes.
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Once the prefixes are understood, the API is relatively simple to comprehend.
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</p>
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<p>
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The Java Time API is composed of several packages, each with a primary function:
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</p>
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<p>
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{@link java.time} contains the main API based on the ISO-8601 standard.
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The classes defined here represent the principal date-time concepts,
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including instants, durations, dates, times, time-zones and periods.
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They are based on the ISO calendar system, which is the <i>de facto</i> world
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calendar following the proleptic Gregorian rules.
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All the classes are immutable and thread-safe.
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</p>
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<p>
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{@link java.time.temporal} contains the API for accessing the fields and units
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of date-time. Units are measurable, such as years, months and hours.
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For example, the expression "2 hours later" uses the hours unit.
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By contrast, fields are mini-calculations, defining a value.
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For example, month-of-year, day-of-week and hour-of-day are all fields.
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The set of supported units and fields can be extended by applications if desired.
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</p>
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<p>
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{@link java.time.format} contains the API to print and parse fields into date-time
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objects and to customize parsing and printing.
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Formatters can be created in a variety of ways, including constants, patterns,
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localized styles and a builder.
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Formatters are immutable and thread-safe.
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</p>
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<p>
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{@link java.time.zone} contains the API to handle time-zones.
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Detailed information is made available about the rules of each time-zone.
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</p>
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<p>
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{@link java.time.chrono} contains the basic part of the calendar neutral API
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and alternate calendar systems.
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This is intended for use by applications that need to use localized calendars.
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Support is provided for the Hijrah, Japanese, Minguo, and Thai Buddhist Calendars.
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</p>
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<h3>Design notes</h3>
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<p>
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Where possible, the API avoids the use of null.
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All methods define whether they accept or return null in the Javadoc.
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As a general rule, methods do not accept or return null.
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A key exception is any method that takes an object and returns a boolean, for the purpose
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of checking or validating, will generally return false for null.
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</p>
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<p>
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The API is designed to be type-safe where reasonable in the main high-level API.
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Thus, there are separate classes for the distinct concepts of date, time and date-time, plus variants
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for offset and time-zones. The core 7 date-time classes, plus Instant, handle the needs of most applications.
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Further classes handle other combinations - year, year-month and month-day in a type-safe manner.
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</p>
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<p>
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In a language like Java, the use of many different types tends to cause API bloat.
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This is handled here through the use of common method naming patterns throughout the API.
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The common prefixes are 'of', 'get', 'is', 'with', 'plus', 'minus', 'to' and 'at'.
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See {@link java.time.LocalDate} for an example of each of these methods.
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</p>
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<p>
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Following type-safety to its logical conclusion would result in more classes, especially for time -
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hour-minute, hour-minute-second and hour-minute-second-nanosecond.
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While logically pure, this was not possible in practice, as the additional classes would have
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excessively complicated the API. Notably, there would be additional combinations at the offset
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and date-time levels, such as offset-date-hour-minute.
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To avoid this explosion of types, {@link java.time.LocalTime} is used for all precisions of time.
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By contrast, some additional classes were used for dates, such as {@link java.time.YearMonth}.
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This proved necessary, as the API for year-month is significantly different to that for a date, whereas
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an absence of nanoseconds in a time can be approximated by returning zero.
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</p>
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<p>
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Similarly, full type-safety might argue for a separate class for each field in date-time,
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such as a class for HourOfDay and another for DayOfMonth.
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This approach was tried, but was excessively complicated in the Java language, lacking usability.
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A similar problem occurs with periods.
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There is a case for a separate class for each period unit, such as a type for Years and a type for Minutes.
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However, this yields a lot of classes and a problem of type conversion.
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As such, general access to fields and units is not wrapped in a class.
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</p>
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<p>
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Multiple calendar systems is an awkward addition to the design challenges.
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The first principal is that most users want the standard ISO calendar system.
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As such, the main classes are ISO-only. The second principal is that most of those that want a
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non-ISO calendar system want it for user interaction, thus it is a UI localization issue.
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As such, date and time objects should be held as ISO objects in the data model and persistent
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storage, only being converted to and from a local calendar for display.
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The calendar system would be stored separately in the user preferences.
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</p>
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<p>
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There are, however, some limited use cases where users believe they need to store and use
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dates in arbitrary calendar systems throughout the application.
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This is supported by {@link java.time.chrono.ChronoLocalDate}, however it is vital to read
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all the associated warnings in the Javadoc of that interface before using it.
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In summary, applications that require general interoperation between multiple calendar systems
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typically need to be written in a very different way to those only using the ISO calendar,
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thus most applications should just use ISO and avoid {@code ChronoLocalDate}.
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</p>
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<p>
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Throughout all of this, a key goal was to allow date-time fields and units to be defined by applications.
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This has been achieved having tried many different designs.
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</p>
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</body>
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