I want to create an instance of `kotlinx.datetime.format.DateTimeFormat` which will correctly parse ...

# kotlinx-datetime

[Daniel Pitts]

I want to create an instance of kotlinx.datetime.format.DateTimeFormat which will correctly parse "an iCalendar format DATE-TIME value in UTC". For example 19000101T000000Z. ChatGPT and Github Copilot are eager to tell me how to do it with Java, but completely lost with Kotlinx datetime.

[Daniel Pitts]

Ah, just saw this in the readme:

The library is based on the ISO 8601 international standard, other ways to represent dates and times are out of its scope. Internationalization (such as locale-specific month and day names) is out the scope, too.

Looks like maybe its not possible to do directly.

[ephemient]

https://kotlinlang.org/api/kotlinx-datetime/kotlinx-datetime/kotlinx.datetime.format/-date-time-components/-companion/-format.html should be pretty understandable

[Daniel Pitts]

Ah, that might be what I'm looking for!

[Dmitry Khalanskiy [JB]]

If ChatGPT gives you a Java.Time pattern, you can use the trick described in https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx-datetime?tab=readme-ov-file#using-unicode-format-strings-like-yyyy-mm-dd to learn what the corresponding kotlinx-datetime code looks like.

[Daniel Pitts]

I tend to rely on source level documentation, and the docs in this case didn’t link me to the examples. Now that I know where I can read about the format dsl, I’ll be able to use it more effectively;-)

[Dmitry Khalanskiy [JB]]

Sorry, could you explain this in more detail? Where did you look, and where didn't you find a pointer that should have been there? We try to make the documentation comprehensive, so if there is a hole somewhere, we'd like to fix it.

[Daniel Pitts]

The KDoc for .gradle/caches/modules-2/files-2.1/org.jetbrains.kotlinx/kotlinx-datetime/0.6.1/23276007dcfffad437d5302c44e2e82c679c5c69/kotlinx-datetime-0.6.1-sources.jar!/commonMain/Instant.kt:383 . It has a "samples", but IntelliJ just shows that as "// Unresolved"

[Daniel Pitts]

image.png

[Dmitry Khalanskiy [JB]]

Yes, showing samples in the IDE is not supported. The samples are used in the reference documentation (https://kotlinlang.org/api/kotlinx-datetime/kotlinx-datetime/kotlinx.datetime/-instant/-companion/parse.html)

[Daniel Pitts]

It would have benefited me to have a link to the format builder entry point.