Support for Java and globalization

The Java™ development kit provides a rich set of APIs for developing global applications. These globalization APIs are based on the Unicode 2.0 code set and can adapt text, numbers, dates, currency, and user-defined objects to any country conventions.

The globalization APIs are concentrated in three packages:
  • The java.text package contains classes and interfaces for handling text in a locale-sensitive way.
  • The java.io package contains new classes for importing and exporting non-Unicode character data.
  • The java.util package contains the Locale class, the globalization support classes, and new classes for date and time handling.
Important: There is no connection between Java development kit locales and code sets; you must keep these code sets in agreement.