• Home
  • Line#
  • Scopes#
  • Navigate#
  • Raw
  • Download
1---
2layout: default
3title: ICU4J
4nav_order: 500
5has_children: true
6---
7<!--
8© 2020 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others.
9License & terms of use: http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html
10-->
11
12# ICU4J Readme
13{: .no_toc }
14
15## Contents
16{: .no_toc .text-delta }
17
181. TOC
19{:toc}
20
21---
22
23## Introduction to ICU4J
24
25The International Components for Unicode (ICU) library provides robust and full-featured Unicode services on a wide variety of platforms. ICU supports the most current version of the Unicode standard, including support for supplementary characters (needed for GB 18030 repertoire support).
26
27Java provides a strong foundation for global programs, and IBM and the ICU team played a key role in providing globalization technology to Java. But because of its long release schedule, Java cannot always keep up with evolving standards. The ICU team continues to extend Java's Unicode and internationalization support, focusing on improving performance, keeping current with the Unicode standard, and providing richer APIs, while remaining as compatible as possible with the original Java text and internationalization API design.
28
29ICU4J is an add-on to the regular JRE that provides:
30
31*   [Collation](../collation) – rule-based, up-to-date Unicode Collation Algorithm (UCA) sorting order
32        For fast multilingual string comparison; faster and more complete than the J2SE implementation
33*   [Charset Detection](../conversion/detection) – Recognition of various single and multibyte charsets
34        Useful for recognizing untagged text data
35*   [UnicodeSet](../strings/unicodeset) – standard set operations optimized for sets of Unicode characters
36        UnicodeSets can be built from string patterns using any Unicode properties.
37*   [Transforms](../transforms) – a flexible mechanism for Unicode text conversions
38        Including Full/Halfwidth conversions, Normalization, Case conversions, Hex conversions, and transliterations between scripts (50+ pairs)
39*   [Unicode Normalization](../transforms/normalization) – NFC, NFD, NFKD, NFKC
40        For canonical text representations, needed for XML and the net
41*   [International Calendars](../datetime/calendar) – Arabic, Buddhist, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Ethiopic, Islamic, Coptic and other calendars
42        Required for correct presentation of dates in certain countries
43*   [Date Format Enhancements](../format_parse/datetime) – Date/time pattern generator, Relative date formatting, etc.
44        Enhancements to the normal Java date formatting.
45*   [Number Format Enhancements](../format_parse/numbers) – Scientific Notation, Spelled-out, Compact decimal format, etc.
46        Enhancements to the normal Java number formatting. The spell-out format is used for checks and similar documents
47*   [Enhanced Word-Break Detection](../boundaryanalysis) – Rule-based, supports Thai, Khmer, Chinese, etc.
48        Required for correct support of Thai
49*   [Unicode Text Compression](../conversion/compression) – Standard compression of Unicode text
50        Suitable for large numbers of small fields, where LZW and similar schemes do not apply
51*   [Charset Conversion](../conversion) – Conversion to and from different charsets.
52        Plugs into Java CharsetProvider Service Provider Interface (SPI)
53
54> :point_right: **Note:** We continue to provide assistance to Java, and in some cases, ICU4J support has been rolled into a later release of Java. For example, BCP47 language tag support including Unicode locale extensions is now in Java 7\. However, the most current and complete version is always found in ICU4J.
55
56## Platform Dependencies
57
58The minimum Java runtime version supported by ICU4J 68 is version 7\. Java runtime version 6 is not supported.
59
60ICU4J since version 63 depend on J2SE 7 functionality. Therefore, ICU4J only runs on JRE version 7 or later. ICU4J 68 is tested on JRE 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.
61
62## How to Download ICU4J
63
64There are a few different ways to download the ICU4J releases.
65
66*   **Official Release:**
67    If you want to use ICU4J (as opposed to developing it), your best bet is to download an official, packaged version of the ICU4J library files. These versions are tested more thoroughly than day-to-day development builds, and they are packaged in jar files for convenient download.
68    *   [ICU Download page](https://icu.unicode.org/download)
69    *   Maven repository:
70
71~~~
72<dependency>
73    <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
74    <artifactId>icu4j</artifactId>
75    <version>68.1</version>
76</dependency>
77
78<dependency>
79    <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
80    <artifactId>icu4j-charset</artifactId>
81    <version>68.1</version>
82</dependency>
83
84<dependency>
85    <groupId>com.ibm.icu</groupId>
86    <artifactId>icu4j-localespi</artifactId>
87    <version>68.1</version>
88</dependency>
89~~~
90
91*   **GitHub Source Repository:**
92    If you are interested in developing features, patches, or bug fixes for ICU4J, you should probably be working with the latest version of the ICU4J source code. You will need to clone and checkout the code from our GitHub repository to ensure that you have the most recent version of all of the files. There are several ways to do this. Please follow the directions that are contained on the [Source Repository page](https://icu.unicode.org/repository) for details.
93
94For more details on how to download ICU4J directly from the web site, please see the ICU download page at [https://icu.unicode.org/download](https://icu.unicode.org/download)
95
96## The Structure and Contents of ICU4J
97
98Below, all directory paths are relative to the directory where the ICU4J source archive is extracted.
99
100### Information and build files
101
102| Path                         | Description                                                                             |
103|------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
104| build.xml                   | The main Ant build file for ICU4J. See [How to Install and Build](#how-to-install-and-build) for more information |
105| main/shared/licenses/LICENSE | ICU license                                                                             |
106
107### ICU4J runtime class files
108
109| Path                    | Sub-component Name | Build Dependencies        | Public API Packages | Description   |
110|-------------------------|--------------------|---------------------------|---------------------|---------------|
111| `main/classes/charset`    | `icu4j-charset`      | `icu4j-core` | `com.ibm.icu.charset` | Implementation of   `java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider`. This sub-component is shipped as `icu4j-charset.jar` along with ICU charset converter data files. |
112| `main/classes/collate`    | `icu4j-collate`      | `icu4j-core` | `com.ibm.icu.text` <br/> `com.ibm.icu.util` | Collator APIs and implementation. Also includes some public API classes that depend on Collator. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
113| `main/classes/core`       | `icu4j-core`         | n/a  | `com.ibm.icu.lang` <br/> `com.ibm.icu.math` <br/> `com.ibm.icu.text` <br/> `com.ibm.icu.util` | ICU core API classes and implementation. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
114| `main/classes/currdata`   | `icu4j-currdata`     | `icu4j-core` | n/a | No public API classes. Provides access to currency display data. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
115| `main/classes/langdata`   | `icu4j-langdata`     | `icu4j-core` | n/a | No public API classes. Provides access to language display data. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
116| `main/classes/localespi`  | `icu4j-localespi`    | `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-collate` | n/a | Implementation of various locale-sensitive service providers defined in   `java.text.spi`   and   `java.util.spi`  in J2SE 6.0 or later Java releases. This sub-component is shipped as `icu4j-localespi.jar`. |
117| `main/classes/regiondata` | `icu4j-regiondata`   | `icu4j-core` | n/a | No public API classes. Provides access to region display data. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
118| `main/classes/translit`   | `icu4j-translit`     | `icu4j-core` | `com.ibm.icu.text` | Transliterator APIs and implementation. This sub-component is packaged as a part of `icu4j.jar`. |
119
120### ICU4J unit test files
121
122| Path                                      | Sub-component Name              | Runtime Dependencies                                                                                         | Description                                     |
123|-------------------------------------------|---------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|
124| `main/tests/charset`                        | `icu4j-charset-tests`             | `icu4j-charset` <br/> `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework`                                                                | Test suite for charset sub-component.           |
125| `main/tests/collate`                        | `icu4j-collate-tests`             | `icu4j-collate` <br/> `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework`                                                                | Test suite for collate sub-component.           |
126| `main/tests/core`                           | `icu4j-core-tests`                | `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-currdata` <br/> `icu4j-langdata` <br/> `icu4j-regiondata` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework`                               | Test suite for core sub-component.              |
127| `main/tests/framework`                      | `icu4j-test-framework`            | `icu4j-core`                                                                                                   | Common ICU4J unit test framework and utilities. |
128| `main/tests/localespi`                      | `icu4j-localespi-tests`           | `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-collate` <br/> `icu4j-currdata` <br/> `icu4j-langdata` <br/> `icu4j-localespi` <br/> `icu4j-regiondata` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework` | Test suite for localespi sub-component.         |
129| `main/tests/packaging` | `icu4j-packaging-tests` | `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework`                                                                      | Test suite for sub-component packaging.         |
130| `main/tests/translit`                       | `icu4j-translit-tests`            | `icu4j-core` <br/> `icu4j-translit` <br/> `icu4j-test-framework`                                                               | Test suite for translit sub-component.          |
131
132
133
134
135### Others
136
137<table>
138    <tr>
139        <th>Path</th>
140        <th>Description</th>
141    </tr>
142    <tr>
143        <td><code>main/shared</code></td>
144        <td>Files shared by ICU4J sub-components under the <code>main</code> directory including: <ul> <li>ICU4J runtime data archive (icudata.jar).</li> <li>ICU4J unit test data archive (testdata.jar).</li> <li>Shared Ant build script and configuration files.</li> <li>License files.</li></ul> </td>
145    </tr>
146    <tr>
147        <td><code>demos</code></td>
148        <td>ICU4J demo programs.</td>
149    </tr>
150    <tr>
151        <td><code>perf-tests</code></td>
152        <td>ICU4J performance test files.</td>
153    </tr>
154    <tr>
155        <td><code>tools</code></td>
156        <td>ICU4J tools including: <ul> <li>Custom JavaDoc taglets used for generating ICU4J API references.</li> <li>API report tool and data.</li> <li>Other independent utilities used for ICU4J development.</li> </ul></td>
157    </tr>
158    <tr>
159        <td><code>lib</code></td>
160        <td>Folder used for downloading depedency libraries. <br/> <b>Note:</b> ICU4J runtime libraries do not depend on any external libraries other than JDK. These dependencies are for testing (such as JUnit). </td>
161    </tr>
162</table>
163
164## Where to get Documentation
165
166The [ICU User Guide](../) contains lots of general information about ICU, in its C, C++, and Java incarnations.
167
168The complete API documentation for ICU4J (javadoc) is available on the ICU4J web site, and can be built from the sources:
169
170*   [Index to all ICU4J API](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/)
171*   [Charset Detector](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/CharsetDetector.html) – Detection of charset from a byte stream
172*   International Calendars – [Buddhist](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/BuddhistCalendar.html), [Chinese](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/ChineseCalendar.html), [Coptic](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/CopticCalendar.html), [Ethiopic](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/EthiopicCalendar.html), [Gregorian](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/GregorianCalendar.html), [Hebrew](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/HebrewCalendar.html), [Indian](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/IndianCalendar.html), [Islamic](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/IslamicCalendar.html), [Japanese](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/JapaneseCalendar.html), Persian, Dangi.
173*   Time Zone Enhancements – [Time zone transition and rule detection](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/BasicTimeZone.html), [iCalendar VTIMEZONE formatting and parsing](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/VTimeZone.html), [Custom time zones constructed by user defined rules](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/RuleBasedTimeZone.html).
174*   Date Format Enhancements – [Date/Time Pattern Generator](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/DateTimePatternGenerator.html), [Date Interval Format](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/DateIntervalFormat.html), [Duration Format](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/DurationFormat.html).
175*   [Unicode Normalization](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/Normalizer.html) – Canonical text representation for W3C.
176*   [Number Format Enhancements](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/NumberFormat.html) – Scientific Notation, Spelled out.
177*   [Enhanced word-break detection](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/BreakIterator.html) – Rule-based, supports Thai
178*   [Transliteration](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/Transliterator.html) – A general framework for converting text from one format to another, e.g. Cyrillic to Latin, or Hex to Unicode.
179*   Unicode Text [Compression](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeCompressor.html) & [Decompression](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/UnicodeDecompressor.html) – 2:1 compression on English Unicode text.
180*   Collation – [Rule-based sorting](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/RuleBasedCollator.html), [Efficient multi-lingual searching](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/StringSearch.html), [Alphabetic indexing](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/text/AlphabeticIndex.html)
181
182## How to Install and Build
183
184To install ICU4J, simply place the pre-built jar file `icu4j.jar` on your Java `CLASSPATH`. If you need Charset API support please also place `icu4j-charset.jar` on your class path along with `icu4j.jar`.
185
186To build ICU4J, you will need JDK 7 or later (JDK 8 is the reference environment for this release) and the Apache Ant version 1.9 or later. It's recommended to install both the JDK and Ant somewhere _outside_the ICU4J directory. For example, on Linux you might install these in `/usr/local`.
187
188*   Install JDK 8.
189*   Install the [Apache Ant](https://ant.apache.org/) 1.9 or later.
190*   Set environment variables `JAVA_HOME`, `ANT_HOME` and `PATH`, for example:
191
192~~~
193set JAVA_HOME=C:\jdk1.8.0
194set ANT_HOME=C:\apache-ant
195set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%ANT_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
196~~~
197
198Once the JDK and Ant are configured, run the desired target defined in `build.xml`. The default target is `jar` which compiles ICU4J library class files and create ICU4J jar files. For example:
199
200~~~
201C:\icu4j>ant
202Buildfile: C:\icu4j\build.xml
203
204info:
205     [echo] ----- Build Environment Information -------------------
206     [echo] Java Home:    C:\jdk1.8.0\jre
207     [echo] Java Version: 1.8.0_181
208     [echo] Ant Home:     C:\apache-ant
209     [echo] Ant Version:  Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.1 compiled on February 2 2017
210     [echo] OS:           Windows 10
211     [echo] OS Version:   10.0
212     [echo] OS Arch:      amd64
213     [echo] Host:         ICUDEV
214     [echo] -------------------------------------------------------
215
216core:
217
218@compile:
219     [echo] build-local:     ../../shared/../../build-local.properties
220     [echo] --- java compiler arguments ------------------------
221     [echo] source dir:     C:\icu4j\main\classes\core/src
222     [echo] output dir:     C:\icu4j\main\classes\core/out/bin
223     [echo] bootclasspath:
224     [echo] classpath:
225     [echo] source:         1.7
226     [echo] target:         1.7
227     [echo] debug:          on
228     [echo] encoding:       UTF-8
229     [echo] compiler arg:   -Xlint:all,-deprecation,-dep-ann,-options,-overrides
230     [echo] ----------------------------------------------------
231    [mkdir] Created dir: C:\icu4j\main\classes\core\out\bin
232    [javac] Compiling 470 source files to C:\icu4j\main\classes\core\out\bin
233    [javac] Note: Some input files use or override a deprecated API.
234    [javac] Note: Recompile with -Xlint:deprecation for details.
235
236compile:
237
238@copy:
239     [copy] Copying 24 files to C:\icu4j\main\classes\core\out\bin
240
241set-icuconfig-datapath:
242
243copy-data:
244    [unjar] Expanding: C:\icu4j\main\shared\data\icudata.jar into C:\icu4j\main\
245classes\core\out\bin
246    [unjar] Expanding: C:\icu4j\main\shared\data\icutzdata.jar into C:\icu4j\mai
247n\classes\core\out\bin
248
249...
250...
251...
252
253localespi:
254
255@compile:
256     [echo] build-local:     ../../shared/../../build-local.properties
257     [echo] --- java compiler arguments ------------------------
258     [echo] source dir:     C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi/src
259     [echo] output dir:     C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi/out/bin
260     [echo] bootclasspath:
261     [echo] classpath:      C:\icu4j\main\classes\core\out\lib\icu4j-core.jar;C:
262\icu4j\main\classes\collate\out\lib\icu4j-collate.jar
263     [echo] source:         1.7
264     [echo] target:         1.7
265     [echo] debug:          on
266     [echo] encoding:       UTF-8
267     [echo] compiler arg:   -Xlint:all,-deprecation,-dep-ann,-options
268     [echo] ----------------------------------------------------
269    [mkdir] Created dir: C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\bin
270    [javac] Compiling 22 source files to C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\bin
271
272compile:
273
274@copy:
275     [copy] Copying 11 files to C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\bin
276
277copy:
278
279@jar:
280    [mkdir] Created dir: C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\lib
281     [copy] Copying 1 file to C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out
282      [jar] Building jar: C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\lib\icu4j-localesp
283i.jar
284
285jar:
286
287@src-jar:
288      [jar] Building jar: C:\icu4j\main\classes\localespi\out\lib\icu4j-localesp
289i-src.jar
290
291src-jar:
292
293build:
294
295jar:
296     [copy] Copying 1 file to C:\icu4j
297     [copy] Copying 1 file to C:\icu4j
298
299BUILD SUCCESSFUL
300Total time: 30 seconds
301~~~
302
303> :point_right: **Note**:  The above output is an example. The numbers are likely to be different with the current version ICU4J.
304
305The following are some targets that you can provide to `ant`. For more targets run `ant -projecthelp` or see the build.xml file.
306
307
308
309
310
311| **jar (default)** | Create ICU4J runtime library jar archives (`icu4j.jar`, `icu4j-charset.jar` and `icu4j-localespi.jar`) in the root ICU4J directory. |
312| **check**         | Build all ICU4J runtime library classes and corresponding unit test cases, then run the tests.                                      |
313| **clean**         | Remove all build output files.                                                                                                      |
314| **main**          | Build all ICU4J runtime library sub-components (under the directory `main/classes`).                                                |
315| **tests**         | Build all ICU4J unit test sub-components (under the directory `main/tests`) and their dependencies.                                 |
316| **tools**         | Build the tools.                                                                                                                    |
317| **docs**          | Run javadoc over the ICU4J runtime library files, generating an HTML documentation tree in the subdirectory `doc`.                  |
318| **jarDocs**       | Create ICU4J doc jar archive (`icu4jdocs.jar`) containing API reference docs in the root ICU4J directory.                           |
319| **jarDemos**      | Create ICU4J demo jar archive (`icu4jdemos.jar`) in the root ICU4J directory.                                                       |
320
321For more information, read the Ant documentation and the **build.xml** file.
322
323> :point_right: **Note**: If you get an OutOfMemoryError when you are running <tt>"ant check"</tt>, you can set the heap size of the jvm by setting the environment variable JVM_OPTIONS to the appropriate java options.
324
325> :point_right: **Note**: **Eclipse users:** See the ICU4J site for information on [how to configure Eclipse](https://icu.unicode.org/setup/eclipse) to build and develop ICU4J on Eclipse IDE.
326
327> :point_right: **Note**: To install and configure ICU4J Locale Service Provider, please refer the user guide page [ICU4J Locale Service Provider](./locale-service-provider).
328
329## Trying Out ICU4J
330
331> :point_right: **Note**: the demos provided with ICU4J are for the most part undocumented. This list can show you where to look, but you'll have to experiment a bit. The demos are **unsupported** and may change or disappear without notice.
332
333The icu4j.jar file contains only the ICU4J runtime library classes, not the demo classes, so unless you build ICU4J there is little to try out.
334
335### Charset
336
337To try out the **Charset** package, build **icu4j.jar** and **icu4j-charset.jar** using the `jar` target. You can use the charsets by placing these files on your classpath.
338
339~~~
340java -cp $icu4j_root/icu4j.jar:$icu4j_root/icu4j-charset.jar <your program>
341~~~
342
343### Other demos
344
345The other demo programs are **not supported** and exist only to let you experiment with the ICU4J classes. First, build ICU4J using `ant jarDemos`. Then launch the demos as below:
346
347~~~
348java -jar $icu4j_root/icu4jdemos.jar
349~~~
350
351## ICU4J Resource Information
352
353Starting with release 2.1, ICU4J includes its own resource information which is completely independent of the JRE resource information. (Note, ICU4J 2.8 to 3.4, time zone information depends on the underlying JRE). The ICU4J resource information is equivalent to the information in ICU4C and many resources are, in fact, the same binary files that ICU4C uses.
354
355By default the ICU4J distribution includes all of the standard resource information. It is located under the directory com/ibm/icu/impl/data. Depending on the service, the data is in different locations and in different formats.
356
357> :point_right: **Note**: This will continue to change from release to release, so clients should not depend on the exact organization of the data in ICU4J.
358
359*   The primary **locale data** is under the directory `icudt68b`, as a set of `".res"` files whose names are the locale identifiers. Locale naming is documented the `com.ibm.icu.util.ULocale` class, and the use of these names in searching for resources is documented in `com.ibm.icu.util.UResourceBundle`.
360*   The **break iterator data** is under the directory `icudt68b/brkitr`, as a set of `".res"`, `".brk"` and `".dict"` files.
361*   The **collation data** is under the directory `icudt68b/coll`, as a set of `".res"` files.
362*   The **currency display name data** is under the directory `icudt68b/curr`, as a set of `".res"` files.
363*   The **language display name data** is under the directory `icudt68b/lang`, as a set of `".res"` files.
364*   The **rule-based number format data** is under the directory `icudt68b/rbnf`, as a set of `".res"` files.
365*   The **region display name data** is under the directory `icudt68b/region`, as a set of `".res"` files.
366*   The **rule-based transliterator data** is under the directory `icudt68b/translit`, as a set of `".res"` files.
367*   The **measurement unit data** is under the directory `icudt68b/unit`, as a set of `".res"` files.
368*   The **time zone display name data** is under the directory `icudt68b/zone`, as a set of `".res"` files.
369*   The **character property data** and default **unicode collation algorithm (UCA) data** is found under the directory `icudt68b`, as a set of `".icu"` files.
370*   The **normalization data** is found under the directory `icudt68b`, as a set of `".nrm"` files.
371*   The **character set converter data** is under the directory `icudt68b`, as a set of `".cnv"` files. These files are currently included only in icu-charset.jar.
372*   The **time zone rule data** is under the directory `icudt68b`, as `zoneinfo64.res`.
373*   The **holiday data** is under the directory `icudt68b`, as a set of `".class"` files, named `"HolidayBundle_"` followed by the locale ID.
374
375Some of the data files alias or otherwise reference data from other data files. One reason for this is because some locale names have changed. For example, `he_IL` used to be `iw_IL`. In order to support both names but not duplicate the data, one of the resource files refers to the other file's data. In other cases, a file may alias a portion of another file's data in order to save space. Currently ICU4J provides no tool for revealing these dependencies.
376
377> :point_right: **Note**: Java's `Locale` class silently converts the language code `"he"` to `"iw"` when you construct the Locale (for versions of Java through Java 5). Thus Java cannot be used to locate resources that use the `"he"` language code. ICU, on the other hand, does not perform this conversion in ULocale, and instead uses aliasing in the locale data to represent the same set of data under different locale ids.
378
379Resource files that use locale ids form a hierarchy, with up to four levels: a root, language, region (country), and variant. Searches for locale data attempt to match as far down the hierarchy as possible, for example, `"he_IL"` will match `he_IL`, but `"he_US"` will match `he` (since there is no `US` variant for he, and `"xx_YY` will match root (the default fallback locale) since there is no `xx` language code in the locale hierarchy. Again, see `java.util.ResourceBundle` for more information.
380
381**Currently ICU4J provides no tool for revealing these dependencies** between data files, so trimming the data directly in the ICU4J project is a hit-or-miss affair. The key point when you remove data is to make sure to remove all dependencies on that data as well. For example, if you remove `he.res`, you need to remove `he_IL.res`, since it is lower in the hierarchy, and you must remove iw.res, since it references `he.res`, and `iw_IL.res`, since it depends on it (and also references `he_IL.res`).
382
383Unfortunately, the jar tool in the JDK provides no way to remove items from a jar file. Thus you have to extract the resources, remove the ones you don't want, and then create a new jar file with the remaining resources. See the jar tool information for how to do this. Before 'rejaring' the files, be sure to thoroughly test your application with the remaining resources, making sure each required resource is present.
384
385### Using additional resource files with ICU4J
386
387> :warning: **Warning: Resource file formats can change across releases of ICU4J!**
388>
389> The format of ICU4J resources is not part of the API. Clients who develop their own resources for use with ICU4J should be prepared to regenerate them when they move to new releases of ICU4J.
390
391
392We are still developing ICU4J's resource mechanism. Currently it is not possible to mix icu's new binary `.res` resources with traditional java-style `.class` or `.txt` resources. We might allow for this in a future release, but since the resource data and format is not formally supported, you run the risk of incompatibilities with future releases of ICU4J.
393
394Resource data in ICU4J is checked in to the repository as a jar file containing the resource binaries, `$icu4j_root/main/shared/data/icudata.jar`. This means that inspecting the contents of these resources is difficult. They currently are compiled from ICU4C `.txt` file data. You can view the contents of the ICU4C text resource files to understand the contents of the ICU4J resources.
395
396The files in `icudata.jar` get extracted to `com/ibm/icu/impl/data` in the build output directory by some build targets.
397
398### Building ICU4J Resources from ICU4C
399
400ICU4J data is built by ICU4C tools. Please see [ICU Data Build Tool](../icu_data/buildtool) for the procedures.
401
402#### Generating Data from CLDR
403
404> :point_right: **Note**: This procedure assumes that all 3 sources are present
405
406> :point_right: **Note**: The following example was written using the example of the CLDR 38 release which was released in conjunction with the ICU 68.1 release
407
4081.  Checkout or download CLDR version `release-38`
4092.  Checkout ICU with tag `release-68-1`
4103.  cd to icu4c/source/data directory
4114.  Follow the instructions in [`icu4c/source/data/cldr-icu-readme.txt`](https://github.com/unicode-org/icu/blob/main/icu4c/source/data/cldr-icu-readme.txt)
4125.  Rebuild ICU4C with the newly generated data.
4136.  Run ICU4C tests to verify that the new data is good.
4147.  Build ICU4J data from ICU4C data by following the procedures in [ICU Data Build Tool](../icu_data/buildtool)
4158.  cd to `icu4j` dir
4169.  Build and test icu4j
417
418## About ICU4J Time Zone
419
420ICU4J library includes the latest time zone data, as of the release date. However, time zone data is frequently updated in response to changes made by local governments around the world. If you need to update the time zone data, please refer the ICU user guide topic [Updating the Time Zone Data](../datetime/timezone#updating-the-time-zone-data).
421
422You can optionally configure ICU4J date and time service classes to use underlying JDK TimeZone implementation (see the ICU4J API reference [TimeZone](https://unicode-org.github.io/icu-docs/apidoc/released/icu4j/com/ibm/icu/util/TimeZone.html) for the details). When this configuration is enabled, ICU's own time zone data won't be used and you have to get time zone data patches from the JRE vendor.
423
424## Where to Find More Information
425
426[https://icu.unicode.org/](https://icu.unicode.org/) is the home page of International Components for Unicode development project
427
428## Submitting Comments, Requesting Features and Reporting Bugs
429
430Your comments are important to making ICU4J successful. We are committed to investigate any bug reports or suggestions, and will use your feedback to help plan future releases.
431
432To submit comments, request features and report bugs, please see [ICU bug database information](https://icu.unicode.org/bugs) or contact us through the [ICU Support mailing list](https://icu.unicode.org/contacts). While we are not able to respond individually to each comment, we do review all comments.
433
434* * *
435
436© 2016 and later: Unicode, Inc. and others.
437License & terms of use: [http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html](http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html)
438