Java date format - including additional characters

Question

Is there an equivalent to php date() style formatting in Java? I mean, in php I can backslash-escape characters to have them treated literally. I.e. yyyy \\y\\e\\a\\

Answer 1

You can use String.format as documented in java.util.Formatter:

Calendar c = ...;
String s = String.format("%tY year", c);
// -> s == "2010 year" or whatever the year actually is