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Spring Field Formatting

As discussed in the previous section, core.convert is a general-purpose type conversion system. It provides a unified ConversionService API as well as a strongly typed Converter SPI for implementing conversion logic from one type to another. A Spring container uses this system to bind bean property values. In addition, both the Spring Expression Language (SpEL) and DataBinder use this system to bind field values. For example, when SpEL needs to coerce a Short to a Long to complete an expression.setValue(Object bean, Object value) attempt, the core.convert system performs the coercion.

Now consider the type conversion requirements of a typical client environment, such as a web or desktop application. In such environments, you typically convert from String to support the client postback process, as well as back to String to support the view rendering process. In addition, you often need to localize String values. The more general core.convert Converter SPI does not address such formatting requirements directly. To directly address them, Spring provides a convenient Formatter SPI that provides a simple and robust alternative to PropertyEditor implementations for client environments.

In general, you can use the Converter SPI when you need to implement general-purpose type conversion logic — for example, for converting between a java.util.Date and a Long. You can use the Formatter SPI when you work in a client environment (such as a web application) and need to parse and print localized field values. The ConversionService provides a unified type conversion API for both SPIs.

The `Formatter` SPI

The Formatter SPI to implement field formatting logic is simple and strongly typed. The following listing shows the Formatter interface definition:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface Formatter<T> extends Printer<T>, Parser<T> {
}

Formatter extends from the Printer and Parser building-block interfaces. The following listing shows the definitions of those two interfaces:

public interface Printer<T> {

	String print(T fieldValue, Locale locale);
}

import java.text.ParseException;

public interface Parser<T> {

	T parse(String clientValue, Locale locale) throws ParseException;
}

To create your own Formatter, implement the Formatter interface shown earlier. Parameterize T to be the type of object you wish to format — for example, java.util.Date. Implement the print() operation to print an instance of T for display in the client locale. Implement the parse() operation to parse an instance of T from the formatted representation returned from the client locale. Your Formatter should throw a ParseException or an IllegalArgumentException if a parse attempt fails. Take care to ensure that your Formatter implementation is thread-safe.

The format subpackages provide several Formatter implementations as a convenience. The number package provides NumberStyleFormatter, CurrencyStyleFormatter, and PercentStyleFormatter to format Number objects that use a java.text.NumberFormat. The datetime package provides a DateFormatter to format java.util.Date objects with a java.text.DateFormat, as well as a DurationFormatter to format Duration objects in different styles defined in the @DurationFormat.Style enum (see Format Annotation API).

The following DateFormatter is an example Formatter implementation:

Java
Kotlin

package org.springframework.format.datetime;

public final class DateFormatter implements Formatter<Date> {

	private String pattern;

	public DateFormatter(String pattern) {
		this.pattern = pattern;
	}

	public String print(Date date, Locale locale) {
		if (date == null) {
			return "";
		}
		return getDateFormat(locale).format(date);
	}

	public Date parse(String formatted, Locale locale) throws ParseException {
		if (formatted.length() == 0) {
			return null;
		}
		return getDateFormat(locale).parse(formatted);
	}

	protected DateFormat getDateFormat(Locale locale) {
		DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(this.pattern, locale);
		dateFormat.setLenient(false);
		return dateFormat;
	}
}

class DateFormatter(private val pattern: String) : Formatter<Date> {

	override fun print(date: Date, locale: Locale)
			= getDateFormat(locale).format(date)

	@Throws(ParseException::class)
	override fun parse(formatted: String, locale: Locale)
			= getDateFormat(locale).parse(formatted)

	protected fun getDateFormat(locale: Locale): DateFormat {
		val dateFormat = SimpleDateFormat(this.pattern, locale)
		dateFormat.isLenient = false
		return dateFormat
	}
}

The Spring team welcomes community-driven Formatter contributions. See GitHub Issues to contribute.

Annotation-driven Formatting

Field formatting can be configured by field type or annotation. To bind an annotation to a Formatter, implement AnnotationFormatterFactory. The following listing shows the definition of the AnnotationFormatterFactory interface:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface AnnotationFormatterFactory<A extends Annotation> {

	Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes();

	Printer<?> getPrinter(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType);

	Parser<?> getParser(A annotation, Class<?> fieldType);
}

To create an implementation:

Parameterize A to be the field annotationType with which you wish to associate formatting logic — for example org.springframework.format.annotation.DateTimeFormat.
Have getFieldTypes() return the types of fields on which the annotation can be used.
Have getPrinter() return a Printer to print the value of an annotated field.
Have getParser() return a Parser to parse a clientValue for an annotated field.

The following example AnnotationFormatterFactory implementation binds the @NumberFormat annotation to a formatter to let a number style or pattern be specified:

Java
Kotlin

public final class NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory
		implements AnnotationFormatterFactory<NumberFormat> {

	private static final Set<Class<?>> FIELD_TYPES = Set.of(Short.class,
			Integer.class, Long.class, Float.class, Double.class,
			BigDecimal.class, BigInteger.class);

	public Set<Class<?>> getFieldTypes() {
		return FIELD_TYPES;
	}

	public Printer<Number> getPrinter(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) {
		return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType);
	}

	public Parser<Number> getParser(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) {
		return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType);
	}

	private Formatter<Number> configureFormatterFrom(NumberFormat annotation, Class<?> fieldType) {
		if (!annotation.pattern().isEmpty()) {
			return new NumberStyleFormatter(annotation.pattern());
		}
		// else
		return switch(annotation.style()) {
			case Style.PERCENT -> new PercentStyleFormatter();
			case Style.CURRENCY -> new CurrencyStyleFormatter();
			default -> new NumberStyleFormatter();
		};
	}
}

class NumberFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory : AnnotationFormatterFactory<NumberFormat> {

	override fun getFieldTypes(): Set<Class<*>> {
		return setOf(Short::class.java, Int::class.java, Long::class.java, Float::class.java, Double::class.java, BigDecimal::class.java, BigInteger::class.java)
	}

	override fun getPrinter(annotation: NumberFormat, fieldType: Class<*>): Printer<Number> {
		return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType)
	}

	override fun getParser(annotation: NumberFormat, fieldType: Class<*>): Parser<Number> {
		return configureFormatterFrom(annotation, fieldType)
	}

	private fun configureFormatterFrom(annotation: NumberFormat, fieldType: Class<*>): Formatter<Number> {
		return if (annotation.pattern.isNotEmpty()) {
			NumberStyleFormatter(annotation.pattern)
		} else {
			val style = annotation.style
			when {
				style === NumberFormat.Style.PERCENT -> PercentStyleFormatter()
				style === NumberFormat.Style.CURRENCY -> CurrencyStyleFormatter()
				else -> NumberStyleFormatter()
			}
		}
	}
}

To trigger formatting, you can annotate fields with @NumberFormat, as the following example shows:

Java
Kotlin

public class MyModel {

	@NumberFormat(style=Style.CURRENCY)
	private BigDecimal decimal;
}

class MyModel(
	@field:NumberFormat(style = Style.CURRENCY) private val decimal: BigDecimal
)

Format Annotation API

A portable format annotation API exists in the org.springframework.format.annotation package. You can use @NumberFormat to format Number fields such as Double and Long, @DurationFormat to format Duration fields in ISO-8601 and simplified styles, and @DateTimeFormat to format fields such as java.util.Date, java.util.Calendar, and Long (for millisecond timestamps) as well as JSR-310 java.time types.

The following example uses @DateTimeFormat to format a java.util.Date as an ISO date (yyyy-MM-dd):

Java
Kotlin

public class MyModel {

	@DateTimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE)
	private Date date;
}

class MyModel(
	@DateTimeFormat(iso=ISO.DATE) private val date: Date
)

For further details, see the javadoc for @DateTimeFormat, @DurationFormat, and @NumberFormat.

Style-based formatting and parsing rely on locale-sensitive patterns which may change depending on the Java runtime. Specifically, applications that rely on date, time, or number parsing and formatting may encounter incompatible changes in behavior when running on JDK 20 or higher.

Using an ISO standardized format or a concrete pattern that you control allows for reliable system-independent and locale-independent parsing and formatting of date, time, and number values.

For @DateTimeFormat, the use of fallback patterns can also help to address compatibility issues.

For further details, see the Date and Time Formatting with JDK 20 and higher page in the Spring Framework wiki.

The `FormatterRegistry` SPI

The FormatterRegistry is an SPI for registering formatters and converters. FormattingConversionService is an implementation of FormatterRegistry suitable for most environments. You can programmatically or declaratively configure this variant as a Spring bean, for example, by using FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean. Because this implementation also implements ConversionService, you can directly configure it for use with Spring’s DataBinder and the Spring Expression Language (SpEL).

The following listing shows the FormatterRegistry SPI:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface FormatterRegistry extends ConverterRegistry {

	void addPrinter(Printer<?> printer);

	void addParser(Parser<?> parser);

	void addFormatter(Formatter<?> formatter);

	void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Formatter<?> formatter);

	void addFormatterForFieldType(Class<?> fieldType, Printer<?> printer, Parser<?> parser);

	void addFormatterForFieldAnnotation(AnnotationFormatterFactory<? extends Annotation> annotationFormatterFactory);
}

As shown in the preceding listing, you can register formatters by field type or by annotation.

The FormatterRegistry SPI lets you configure formatting rules centrally, instead of duplicating such configuration across your controllers. For example, you might want to enforce that all date fields are formatted a certain way or that fields with a specific annotation are formatted in a certain way. With a shared FormatterRegistry, you define these rules once, and they are applied whenever formatting is needed.

The `FormatterRegistrar` SPI

FormatterRegistrar is an SPI for registering formatters and converters through the FormatterRegistry. The following listing shows its interface definition:

package org.springframework.format;

public interface FormatterRegistrar {

	void registerFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry);
}

A FormatterRegistrar is useful when registering multiple related converters and formatters for a given formatting category, such as date formatting. It can also be useful where declarative registration is insufficient — for example, when a formatter needs to be indexed under a specific field type different from its own <T> or when registering a Printer/Parser pair. The next section provides more information on converter and formatter registration.

Configuring Formatting in Spring MVC

See Conversion and Formatting in the Spring MVC chapter.