# Package java.text

Provides classes and interfaces for handling text, dates, numbers, and messages in a manner independent of natural languages.

See: Description

- Interface Summary
  Interface | Description
  --- | ---
  AttributedCharacterIterator | An AttributedCharacterIterator allows iteration through both text and related attribute information.
  CharacterIterator | This interface defines a protocol for bidirectional iteration over text.

- Class Summary
  Class | Description
  --- | ---
  Annotation | An Annotation object is used as a wrapper for a text attribute value if the attribute has annotation characteristics.
  AttributedCharacterIterator.Attribute | Defines attribute keys that are used to identify text attributes.
  AttributedString | An AttributedString holds text and related attribute information.
  Bidi | This class implements the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm.
  BreakIterator | The `BreakIterator` class implements methods for finding the location of boundaries in text.
  ChoiceFormat | A `ChoiceFormat` allows you to attach a format to a range of numbers.
  CollationElementIterator | The `CollationElementIterator` class is used as an iterator to walk through each character of an international string.
  CollationKey | A `CollationKey` represents a `String` under the rules of a specific `Collator` object.
  Collator | The `Collator` class performs locale-sensitive `String` comparison.
  DateFormat | DateFormat is an abstract class for date/time formatting subclasses which formats and parses dates or time in a language-independent manner.
  DateFormat.Field | Defines constants that are used as attribute keys in the `AttributedCharacterIterator` returned from `DateFormat.formatToCharacterIterator` and as field identifiers in `FieldPosition`.
  DateFormatSymbols | `DateFormatSymbols` is a public class for encapsulating localizable date-time formatting data, such as the names of the months, the names of the days of the week, and the time zone data.
  DecimalFormat | `DecimalFormat` is a concrete subclass of `NumberFormat` that formats decimal numbers.
  DecimalFormatSymbols | This class represents the set of symbols (such as the decimal separator, the grouping separator, and so on) needed by `DecimalFormat` to format numbers.
  FieldPosition | `FieldPosition` is a simple class used by `Format` and its subclasses to identify fields in formatted output.
  Format | `Format` is an abstract base class for formatting locale-sensitive information such as dates, messages, and numbers.
  Format.Field | Defines constants that are used as attribute keys in the `AttributedCharacterIterator` returned from `Format.formatToCharacterIterator` and as field identifiers in `FieldPosition`.
  MessageFormat | `MessageFormat` provides a means to produce concatenated messages in a language-neutral way.
  MessageFormat.Field | Defines constants that are used as attribute keys in the `AttributedCharacterIterator` returned from `MessageFormat.formatToCharacterIterator`.
  Normalizer | This class provides the method `normalize` which transforms Unicode text into an equivalent composed or decomposed form, allowing for easier sorting and searching of text.
  NumberFormat | `NumberFormat` is the abstract base class for all number formats.
  NumberFormat.Field | Defines constants that are used as attribute keys in the `AttributedCharacterIterator` returned from `NumberFormat.formatToCharacterIterator` and as field identifiers in `FieldPosition`.
  ParsePosition | `ParsePosition` is a simple class used by `Format` and its subclasses to keep track of the current position during parsing.
  RuleBasedCollator | The `RuleBasedCollator` class is a concrete subclass of `Collator` that provides a simple, data-driven, table collator.
  SimpleDateFormat | `SimpleDateFormat` is a concrete class for formatting and parsing dates in a locale-sensitive manner.
  StringCharacterIterator | `StringCharacterIterator` implements the `CharacterIterator` protocol for a `String`.

- Enum Summary
  Enum | Description
  --- | ---
  Normalizer.Form | This enum provides constants of the four Unicode normalization forms that are described in Unicode Standard Annex #15 — Unicode Normalization Forms and two methods to access them.

- Exception Summary
  Exception | Description
  --- | ---
  ParseException | Signals that an error has been reached unexpectedly while parsing.

## Package java.text Description

Provides classes and interfaces for handling text, dates, numbers, and messages in a manner independent of natural languages. This means your main application or applet can be written to be language-independent, and it can rely upon separate, dynamically-linked localized resources. This allows the flexibility of adding localizations for new localizations at any time.

These classes are capable of formatting dates, numbers, and messages, parsing; searching and sorting strings; and iterating over characters, words, sentences, and line breaks. This package contains three main groups of classes and interfaces:

- Classes for iteration over text
- Classes for formatting and parsing
- Classes for string collation

Since:
  JDK1.1

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

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