Custom date format in android for given locale

Question

I'm trying to format a date for a given locale new Locale("mk", "MK"). The locale is valid, it returns the country name and language properly. I want to use custom string, in my case "E, kk:mm" or "EEEE, kk:mm". I want the output to be "сабота, 12:00", but what I get is "7, 12:00".

This is how I use it and I tried many ways, but they all seem to behave the same.

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, kk:mm", new Locale("mk", "MK));
sdf.format(new Date());
// output: 7, 12:30

Another method I tried

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(new Locale("mk", "MK"));
calendar.setTimeInMillis(new Date().getTime());
DateFormat.format("EEEE, kk:mm", calendar);
// output: Saturday, 12:30

I also tried using java.text.DateFormat instead android class, but no change.

The phone locale is set to English, but this is localized app, I want to show dates in a fixed locale format.

I've looked into many SO question regarding this issue and I wasn't able to find answer. I'm not interested in predefined formats, I want to use my own format and I want the date/month names to be formatted for the input locale.

Answer 1

I think the problem is that Macedonia is not a supported locale on the Android JVM. If you run your code as plain Java console app, it's fine. The method Locale.getAvailableLocales() returns 152 members in plain Java, only 88 in an Android emulator. If you have the code snippet:

Locale[] locales = Locale.getAvailableLocales();
   String cCode;
   for (Locale loc :locales){
       cCode = loc.getCountry();
       if (cCode.equalsIgnoreCase("MK"))
            Toast.makeText(this, cCode, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        // Or System.out.println() in a Java app    
}

Then the toast doesn't show for "MK" although it will println in the Java app

Answer 2

From documentation of SimpleDateFormat:

**Text**: For formatting, if the number of pattern letters is 4 or more, 
the full form is used; otherwise a short or abbreviated form is used if 
available. For parsing, both forms are accepted, independent of the 
number of pattern letters.

So this should fix it:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("EEEE, kk:mm", new Locale("mk", "MK"));

Answer 3

NickT was faster :-), so just adding to his answer: if you want to see your locales supported on Android, run:

for (Locale l:Locale.getAvailableLocales()) {
    Log.d(l.getDisplayCountry(),l.toString()); 
}

and you will see that Macedonia is not on the list.