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===============
Date Formatting
===============


.. contents:: Contents
   :depth: 2
.. sectnum::


When working with date and time information in Python, you commonly use the
classes ``date``, ``datetime`` and/or ``time`` from the `datetime`_ package.
Babel provides functions for locale-specific formatting of those objects in its
``dates`` module:

.. _`datetime`: http://docs.python.org/lib/module-datetime.html

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from datetime import date, datetime, time
    >>> from babel.dates import format_date, format_datetime, format_time

    >>> d = date(2007, 4, 1)
    >>> format_date(d, locale='en')
    u'Apr 1, 2007'
    >>> format_date(d, locale='de_DE')
    u'01.04.2007'

As this example demonstrates, Babel will automatically choose a date format
that is appropriate for the requested locale.

The ``format_*()`` functions also accept an optional ``format`` argument, which
allows you to choose between one of four format variations:

 * ``short``,
 * ``medium`` (the default),
 * ``long``, and
 * ``full``.

For example:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> format_date(d, format='short', locale='en')
    u'4/1/07'
    >>> format_date(d, format='long', locale='en')
    u'April 1, 2007'
    >>> format_date(d, format='full', locale='en')
    u'Sunday, April 1, 2007'


Pattern Syntax
==============

While Babel makes it simple to use the appropriate date/time format for a given
locale, you can also force it to use custom patterns. Note that Babel uses
different patterns for specifying number and date formats compared to the
Python equivalents (such as ``time.strftime()``), which have mostly been
inherited from C and POSIX. The patterns used in Babel are based on the
`Locale Data Markup Language specification`_ (LDML), which defines them as
follows:

    A date/time pattern is a string of characters, where specific strings of
    characters are replaced with date and time data from a calendar when formatting
    or used to generate data for a calendar when parsing. […]

    Characters may be used multiple times. For example, if ``y`` is used for the
    year, ``yy`` might produce "99", whereas ``yyyy`` produces "1999". For most
    numerical fields, the number of characters specifies the field width. For
    example, if ``h`` is the hour, ``h`` might produce "5", but ``hh`` produces
    "05". For some characters, the count specifies whether an abbreviated or full
    form should be used […]

    Two single quotes represent a literal single quote, either inside or outside
    single quotes. Text within single quotes is not interpreted in any way (except
    for two adjacent single quotes).

For example:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> d = date(2007, 4, 1)
    >>> format_date(d, "EEE, MMM d, ''yy", locale='en')
    u"Sun, Apr 1, '07"
    >>> format_date(d, "EEEE, d.M.yyyy", locale='de')
    u'Sonntag, 1.4.2007'

    >>> t = time(15, 30)
    >>> format_time(t, "hh 'o''clock' a", locale='en')
    u"03 o'clock PM"
    >>> format_time(t, 'H:mm a', locale='de')
    u'15:30 nachm.'

    >>> dt = datetime(2007, 4, 1, 15, 30)
    >>> format_datetime(dt, "yyyyy.MMMM.dd GGG hh:mm a", locale='en')
    u'02007.April.01 AD 03:30 PM'

The syntax for custom datetime format patterns is described in detail in the
the `Locale Data Markup Language specification`_. The following table is just a
relatively brief overview.

 .. _`Locale Data Markup Language specification`: http://unicode.org/reports/tr35/#Date_Format_Patterns

Date Fields
-----------

  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Field    | Symbol | Description                                            |
  +==========+========+========================================================+
  | Era      | ``G``  | Replaced with the era string for the current date. One |
  |          |        | to three letters for the abbreviated form, four        |
  |          |        | lettersfor the long form, five for the narrow form     |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Year     | ``y``  | Replaced by the year. Normally the length specifies    |
  |          |        | the padding, but for two letters it also specifies the |
  |          |        | maximum length.                                        |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``Y``  | Same as ``y`` but uses the ISO year-week calendar.     |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``u``  | ??                                                     |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Quarter  | ``Q``  | Use one or two for the numerical quarter, three for    |
  |          |        | the abbreviation, or four for the full name.           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``q``  | Use one or two for the numerical quarter, three for    |
  |          |        | the abbreviation, or four for the full name.           |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Month    | ``M``  | Use one or two for the numerical month, three for the  |
  |          |        | abbreviation, or four for the full name, or five for   |
  |          |        | the narrow name.                                       |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``L``  | Use one or two for the numerical month, three for the  |
  |          |        | abbreviation, or four for the full name, or 5 for the  |
  |          |        | narrow name.                                           |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Week     | ``w``  | Week of year.                                          |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``W``  | Week of month.                                         |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Day      | ``d``  | Day of month.                                          |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``D``  | Day of year.                                           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``F``  | Day of week in month.                                  |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``g``  | ??                                                     |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Week day | ``E``  | Day of week. Use one through three letters for the     |
  |          |        | short day, or four for the full name, or five for the  |
  |          |        | narrow name.                                           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``e``  | Local day of week. Same as E except adds a numeric     |
  |          |        | value that will depend on the local starting day of    |
  |          |        | the week, using one or two letters.                    |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``c``  | ??                                                     |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+

Time Fields
-----------

  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Field    | Symbol | Description                                            |
  +==========+========+========================================================+
  | Period   | ``a``  | AM or PM                                               |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Hour     | ``h``  | Hour [1-12].                                           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``H``  | Hour [0-23].                                           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``K``  | Hour [0-11].                                           |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``k``  | Hour [1-24].                                           |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Minute   | ``m``  | Use one or two for zero places padding.                |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  | Second   | ``s``  | Use one or two for zero places padding.                |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``S``  | Fractional second, rounds to the count of letters.     |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``A``  | Milliseconds in day.                                   |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+ 
  | Timezone | ``z``  | Use one to three letters for the short timezone or     |
  |          |        | four for the full name.                                |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``Z``  | Use one to three letters for RFC 822, four letters for |
  |          |        | GMT format.                                            |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``v``  | Use one letter for short wall (generic) time, four for |
  |          |        | long wall time.                                        |
  |          +--------+--------------------------------------------------------+
  |          | ``V``  | Same as ``z``, except that timezone abbreviations      |
  |          |        | should be used regardless of whether they are in       |
  |          |        | common use by the locale.                              |
  +----------+--------+--------------------------------------------------------+


Time-zone Support
=================

Many of the verbose time formats include the time-zone, but time-zone
information is not by default available for the Python ``datetime`` and
``time`` objects. The standard library includes only the abstract ``tzinfo``
class, which you need appropriate implementations for to actually use in your
application. Babel includes a ``tzinfo`` implementation for UTC (Universal
Time).

For real time-zone support, it is strongly recommended that you use the
third-party package `pytz`_, which includes the definitions of practically all
of the time-zones used on the world, as well as important functions for
reliably converting from UTC to local time, and vice versa:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from datetime import time
    >>> from pytz import timezone, utc
    >>> dt = datetime(2007, 04, 01, 15, 30, tzinfo=utc)
    >>> eastern = timezone('US/Eastern')
    >>> format_datetime(dt, 'H:mm Z', tzinfo=eastern, locale='en_US')
    u'11:30 -0400'

The recommended approach to deal with different time-zones in a Python
application is to always use UTC internally, and only convert from/to the users
time-zone when accepting user input and displaying date/time data, respectively.
You can use Babel together with ``pytz`` to apply a time-zone to any
``datetime`` or ``time`` object for display, leaving the original information
unchanged:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> british = timezone('Europe/London')
    >>> format_datetime(dt, 'H:mm zzzz', tzinfo=british, locale='en_US')
    u'16:30 British Summer Time'

Here, the given UTC time is adjusted to the "Europe/London" time-zone, and
daylight savings time is taken into account. Daylight savings time is also
applied to ``format_time``, but because the actual date is unknown in that
case, the current day is assumed to determine whether DST or standard time
should be used.

 .. _`pytz`: http://pytz.sourceforge.net/


Localized Time-zone Names
-------------------------

While the ``Locale`` class provides access to various locale display names
related to time-zones, the process of building a localized name of a time-zone
is actually quite complicated. Babel implements it in separately usable
functions in the ``babel.dates`` module, most importantly the
``get_timezone_name`` function:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from pytz import timezone
    >>> from babel import Locale
    >>> from babel.dates import get_timezone_name

    >>> tz = timezone('Europe/Berlin')
    >>> get_timezone_name(tz, locale=Locale.parse('pt_PT'))
    u'Hor\xe1rio Alemanha'

You can pass the function either a ``datetime.tzinfo`` object, or a
``datetime.date`` or ``datetime.datetime`` object. If you pass an actual date,
the function will be able to take daylight savings time into account. If you
pass just the time-zone, Babel does not know whether daylight savings time is
in effect, so it uses a generic representation, which is useful for example to
display a list of time-zones to the user.

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from datetime import datetime

    >>> dt = tz.localize(datetime(2007, 8, 15))
    >>> get_timezone_name(dt, locale=Locale.parse('de_DE'))
    u'Mitteleurop\xe4ische Sommerzeit'
    >>> get_timezone_name(tz, locale=Locale.parse('de_DE'))
    u'Deutschland'


Parsing Dates
=============

Babel can also parse date and time information in a locale-sensitive manner:

.. code-block:: pycon

    >>> from babel.dates import parse_date, parse_datetime, parse_time

.. note:: Date/time parsing is not properly implemented yet