Class DateTimeSyntax is an abstract base class providing the common
implementation of all attributes whose value is a date and time.
Under the hood, a date-time attribute is stored as a value of class
java.util.Date
. You can get a date-time attribute's Date value by
calling getValue()
. A date-time attribute's
Date value is established when it is constructed (see DateTimeSyntax(Date)
). Once
constructed, a date-time attribute's value is immutable.
To construct a date-time attribute from separate values of the year, month,
day, hour, minute, and so on, use a java.util.Calendar
object to construct a java.util.Date
object, then use the
java.util.Date
object to construct the date-time attribute.
To convert
a date-time attribute to separate values of the year, month, day, hour,
minute, and so on, create a java.util.Calendar
object and
set it to the java.util.Date
from the date-time attribute. Class
DateTimeSyntax stores its value in the form of a java.util.Date
rather than a java.util.Calendar
because it typically takes
less memory to store and less time to compare a java.util.Date
than a java.util.Calendar
.