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MessageFormat
Explicit Formats
Summary of Patterns
Formatting Numbers

For some time, Java has provided the ability to format messages.  It uses the following classes to achieve this functionality:

• Format
  • MessageFormat
  • NumberFormat
    • DecimalFormat
    • ChoiceFormat
  • DateFormat

These classes are part of the java.text package, which is primarily used for Internationalization. The subject of Internationalization (commonly called "I18N") is a very complex one, and we won't be covering it in detail here. Instead, we'll just give some examples of how to do the equivalent of some printf operations (albeit in a more convoluted fashion).