TemporalAmount

public interface TemporalAmount

Framework-level interface defining an amount of time, such as "6 hours", "8 days" or "2 years and 3 months".

This is the base interface type for amounts of time. An amount is distinct from a date or time-of-day in that it is not tied to any specific point on the time-line.

The amount can be thought of as a Map of TemporalUnit to long, exposed via getUnits() and get(java.time.temporal.TemporalUnit). A simple case might have a single unit-value pair, such as "6 hours". A more complex case may have multiple unit-value pairs, such as "7 years, 3 months and 5 days".

There are two common implementations. Period is a date-based implementation, storing years, months and days. Duration is a time-based implementation, storing seconds and nanoseconds, but providing some access using other duration based units such as minutes, hours and fixed 24-hour days.

This interface is a framework-level interface that should not be widely used in application code. Instead, applications should create and pass around instances of concrete types, such as Period and Duration.

Summary

Public methods

public abstract Temporal addTo (Temporal temporal)

   // These two lines are equivalent, but the second approach is recommended
   dateTime = amount.addTo(dateTime);
   dateTime = dateTime.plus(adder);
 

public abstract long get (TemporalUnit unit)

public abstract List<TemporalUnit> getUnits ()

public abstract Temporal subtractFrom (Temporal temporal)

   // these two lines are equivalent, but the second approach is recommended
   dateTime = amount.subtractFrom(dateTime);
   dateTime = dateTime.minus(amount);