[java] How to get the current date/time in Java

What's the best way to get the current date/time in Java?

For java.util.Date, just create a new Date()

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(date)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43

For java.util.Calendar, uses Calendar.getInstance()

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43

For java.time.LocalDateTime, uses LocalDateTime.now()

DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
LocalDateTime now = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println(dtf.format(now)); //2016/11/16 12:08:43

For java.time.LocalDate, uses LocalDate.now()

DateTimeFormatter dtf = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd");
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
System.out.println(dtf.format(localDate)); //2016/11/16

Reference: https://www.mkyong.com/java/java-how-to-get-current-date-time-date-and-calender/

You can use Date object and format by yourself. It is hard to format and need more codes, as a example,

Date dateInstance = new Date();
int year = dateInstance.getYear()+1900;//Returns:the year represented by this date, minus 1900.
int date = dateInstance.getDate();
int month = dateInstance.getMonth();
int day = dateInstance.getDay();
int hours = dateInstance.getHours();
int min = dateInstance.getMinutes();
int sec = dateInstance.getSeconds();

String dayOfWeek = "";
switch(day){
    case 0:
        dayOfWeek = "Sunday";
        break;
    case 1:
        dayOfWeek = "Monday";
        break;
    case 2:
        dayOfWeek = "Tuesday";
        break;
    case 3:
        dayOfWeek = "Wednesday";
        break;
    case 4:
        dayOfWeek = "Thursday";
        break;
    case 5:
        dayOfWeek = "Friday";
        break;
    case 6:
        dayOfWeek = "Saturday";
        break;
}
System.out.println("Date: " + year +"-"+ month + "-" + date + " "+ dayOfWeek);
System.out.println("Time: " + hours +":"+ min + ":" + sec);

output:

Date: 2017-6-23 Sunday
Time: 14:6:20

As you can see this is the worst way you can do it and according to oracle documentation it is deprecated.

Oracle doc:

The class Date represents a specific instant in time, with millisecond precision.

Prior to JDK 1.1, the class Date had two additional functions. It allowed the interpretation of dates as year, month, day, hour, minute, and second values. It also allowed the formatting and parsing of date strings. Unfortunately, the API for these functions was not amenable to internationalization. As of JDK 1.1, the Calendar class should be used to convert between dates and time fields and the DateFormat class should be used to format and parse date strings. The corresponding methods in Date are deprecated.

So alternatively, you can use Calendar class,

Calendar.YEAR;
//and lot more

To get current time, you can use:

Calendar rightNow = Calendar.getInstance();

Doc:

Like other locale-sensitive classes, Calendar provides a class method, getInstance, for getting a generally useful object of this type. Calendar's getInstance method returns a Calendar object whose calendar fields have been initialized with the current date and time

Below code for to get only date

Date rightNow = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
System.out.println(rightNow);

Also, Calendar class have Subclasses. GregorianCalendar is a one of them and concrete subclass of Calendar and provides the standard calendar system used by most of the world.

Example using GregorianCalendar:

Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar();
int hours = cal.get(Calendar.HOUR);
int minute = cal.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int second = cal.get(Calendar.SECOND);
int ap = cal.get(Calendar.AM_PM);

String amVSpm;
if(ap == 0){
    amVSpm = "AM";
}else{
    amVSpm = "PM";
}

String timer = hours + "-" + minute + "-" + second + " " +amVSpm;
System.out.println(timer);

You can use SimpleDateFormat, simple and quick way to format date:

String pattern = "yyyy-MM-dd";
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(pattern);

String date = simpleDateFormat.format(new Date());
System.out.println(date);

Read this Jakob Jenkov tutorial: Java SimpleDateFormat.

As others mentioned, when we need to do manipulation from dates, we didn't had simple and best way or we couldn't satisfied built in classes, APIs.

As a example, When we need to get different between two dates, when we need to compare two dates(there is in-built method also for this) and many more. We had to use third party libraries. One of the good and popular one is Joda Time.

Also read:

• How to get properly current date and time in Joda-Time?
• JodaTime - how to get current time in UTC
• Examples for JodaTime.
• Download Joda

. The happiest thing is now(in java 8), no one need to download and use libraries for any reasons. A simple example to get current date & time in Java 8,

LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();
System.out.println(localTime);

//with time zone
LocalTime localTimeWtZone = LocalTime.now(ZoneId.of("GMT+02:30"));
System.out.println(localTimeWtZone);

One of the good blog post to read about Java 8 date.

And keep remeber to find out more about Java date and time because there is lot more ways and/or useful ways that you can get/use.

• Oracle tutorials for date & time.
• Oracle tutorials for formatter.
• Lesson: Standard Calendar.

EDIT:

According to @BasilBourque comment, the troublesome old date-time classes such as java.util.Date, java.util.Calendar, and java.text.SimpleTextFormat are now legacy, supplanted by the java.time classes.

just try this code:

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
public class CurrentTimeDateCalendar {
    public static void getCurrentTimeUsingDate() {
        Date date = new Date();
        String strDateFormat = "hh:mm:ss a";
        DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(strDateFormat);
        String formattedDate= dateFormat.format(date);
        System.out.println("Current time of the day using Date - 12 hour format: " + formattedDate);
    }
    public static void getCurrentTimeUsingCalendar() {
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
        Date date=cal.getTime();
        DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
        String formattedDate=dateFormat.format(date);
        System.out.println("Current time of the day using Calendar - 24 hour format: "+ formattedDate);
    }
}

which the sample output is:

Current time of the day using Date - 12 hour format: 11:13:01 PM

Current time of the day using Calendar - 24 hour format: 23:13:01

more information on:

Getting Current Date Time in Java

Have you looked at java.util.Date? It is exactly what you want.

Similar to above solutions. But I always find myself looking for this chunk of code:

Date date=Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
System.out.println(date);

New Data-Time API is introduced with the dawn of Java 8. This is due to following issues that were caused in the old data-time API.

Difficult to handle time zone : need to write lot of code to deal with time zones.

Not Thread Safe : java.util.Date is not thread safe.

So have a look around with Java 8

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalTime;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.Month;


public class DataTimeChecker {

    public static void main(String args[]) {
        DataTimeChecker dateTimeChecker = new DataTimeChecker();
        dateTimeChecker.DateTime();
    }

    public void DateTime() {
        // Get the current date and time
        LocalDateTime currentTime = LocalDateTime.now();
        System.out.println("Current DateTime: " + currentTime);

        LocalDate date1 = currentTime.toLocalDate();
        System.out.println("Date : " + date1);

        Month month = currentTime.getMonth();
        int day = currentTime.getDayOfMonth();
        int seconds = currentTime.getSecond();

        System.out.println("Month : " + month);
        System.out.println("Day : " + day);
        System.out.println("Seconds : " + seconds);

        LocalDateTime date2 = currentTime.withDayOfMonth(17).withYear(2018);
        System.out.println("Date : " + date2);

        //Prints 17 May 2018
        LocalDate date3 = LocalDate.of(2018, Month.MAY, 17);
        System.out.println("Date : " + date3);

        //Prints 04 hour 45 minutes
        LocalTime date4 = LocalTime.of(4, 45);
        System.out.println("Date : " + date4);

        // Convert to a String 
        LocalTime date5 = LocalTime.parse("20:15:30");
        System.out.println("Date : " + date5);
    }
}

Output of the coding above :

Current DateTime: 2018-05-17T04:40:34.603
Date : 2018-05-17
Month : MAY
Day : 17
Seconds : 34
Date : 2018-05-17T04:40:34.603
Date : 2018-05-17
Date : 04:45
Date : 20:15:30

 System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy:MM:dd - hh:mm:ss a").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );
    //2018:02:10 - 05:04:20 PM

date/time with AM/PM

Create object of date and simply print it down.

Date d = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.print(d);

I find this to be the best way:

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal.getTime())); // 2014/08/06 16:00:22

1st Understand the java.util.Date class

1.1 How to obtain current Date

import java.util.Date;

class Demostration{
    public static void main(String[]args){
        Date date = new Date(); // date object
        System.out.println(date); // Try to print the date object
    }
}

1.2 How to use getTime() method

import java.util.Date;
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[]args){
        Date date = new Date();
        long timeInMilliSeconds = date.getTime();
        System.out.println(timeInMilliSeconds);
    }
}

This will return the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT for time comparison purposes.

1.3 How to format time using SimpleDateFormat class

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

class Demostration{
    public static void main(String[]args){
        Date date=new Date();
        DateFormat dateFormat=new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
        String formattedDate=dateFormat.format(date);
        System.out.println(formattedDate);
    }
}

Also try using different format patterns like "yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss" and select desired pattern. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

2nd Understand the java.util.Calendar class

2.1 Using Calendar Class to obtain current time stamp

import java.util.Calendar;

class Demostration{
    public static void main(String[]args){
        Calendar calendar=Calendar.getInstance();
        System.out.println(calendar.getTime());
    }
}

2.2 Try using setTime and other set methods for set calendar to different date.

Source: http://javau91.blogspot.com/

    // 2015/09/27 15:07:53
    System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );

    // 15:07:53
    System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );

    // 09/28/2015
    System.out.println(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()));

    // 20150928_161823
    System.out.println( new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime()) );

    // Mon Sep 28 16:24:28 CEST 2015
    System.out.println( Calendar.getInstance().getTime() );

    // Mon Sep 28 16:24:51 CEST 2015
    System.out.println( new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()) );

    // Mon Sep 28
    System.out.println( new Date().toString().substring(0, 10) );

    // 2015-09-28
    System.out.println( new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis()) );

    // 14:32:26
    Date d = new Date();
    System.out.println( (d.getTime() / 1000 / 60 / 60) % 24 + ":" + (d.getTime() / 1000 / 60) % 60 + ":" + (d.getTime() / 1000) % 60 );

    // 2015-09-28 17:12:35.584
    System.out.println( new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis()) );

    // Java 8

    // 2015-09-28T16:16:23.308+02:00[Europe/Belgrade]
    System.out.println( ZonedDateTime.now() );

    // Mon, 28 Sep 2015 16:16:23 +0200
    System.out.println( ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.RFC_1123_DATE_TIME) );

    // 2015-09-28
    System.out.println( LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("Europe/Paris")) ); // rest zones id in ZoneId class

    // 16
    System.out.println( LocalTime.now().getHour() );

    // 2015-09-28T16:16:23.315
    System.out.println( LocalDateTime.now() );

Java 8 or above

LocalDateTime.now() and ZonedDateTime.now()

Current Date using java 8: First, let's use java.time.LocalDate to get the current system date:

LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();

To get the date in any other timezone we can use LocalDate.now(ZoneId):

LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now(ZoneId.of("GMT+02:30"));

We can also use java.time.LocalDateTime to get an instance of LocalDate:

LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
LocalDate localDate = localDateTime.toLocalDate();

If you want the current date as String, try this:

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(date));

or

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(cal.getTime()));

http://www.mkyong.com/java/java-how-to-get-current-date-time-date-and-calender/

In Java 8 it is:

LocalDateTime.now()

and in case you need time zone info:

ZonedDateTime.now()

and in case you want to print fancy formatted string:

System.out.println(ZonedDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.RFC_1123_DATE_TIME))

I'll go ahead and throw this answer in because it is all I needed when I had the same question:

Date currentDate = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());

currentDate is now your current date in a Java Date object.

As mentioned the basic Date() can do what you need in terms of getting the current time. In my recent experience working heavily with Java dates there are a lot of oddities with the built in classes (as well as deprecation of many of the Date class methods). One oddity that stood out to me was that months are 0 index based which from a technical standpoint makes sense, but in real terms can be very confusing.

If you are only concerned with the current date that should suffice - however if you intend to do a lot of manipulating/calculations with dates it could be very beneficial to use a third party library (so many exist because many Java developers have been unsatisfied with the built in functionality).

I second Stephen C's recommendation as I have found Joda-time to be very useful in simplifying my work with dates, it is also very well documented and you can find many useful examples throughout the web. I even ended up writing a static wrapper class (as DateUtils) which I use to consolidate and simplify all of my common date manipulation.

Have a look at the Date class. There's also the newer Calendar class which is the preferred method of doing many date / time operations (a lot of the methods on Date have been deprecated.)

If you just want the current date, then either create a new Date object or call Calendar.getInstance();.

java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();

It's automatically populated with the time it's instantiated.

Use:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy:MM:dd::HH:mm:ss");
System.out.println(sdf.format(System.currentTimeMillis()));

The print statement will print the time when it is called and not when the SimpleDateFormat was created. So it can be called repeatedly without creating any new objects.

There are many different methods:

• System.currentTimeMillis()
• Date
• Calendar

I created this methods, it works for me...

public String GetDay() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd")));
}

public String GetNameOfTheDay() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getDayOfWeek());
}

public String GetMonth() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM")));
}

public String GetNameOfTheMonth() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getMonth());
}

public String GetYear() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy")));
}

public boolean isLeapYear(long year) {
    return Year.isLeap(year);
}

public String GetDate() {
    return GetDay() + "/" + GetMonth() + "/" + GetYear();
}

public String Get12HHour() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("hh")));
}

public String Get24HHour() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().getHour());
}

public String GetMinutes() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("mm")));
}

public String GetSeconds() {
    return String.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now().format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("ss")));
}

public String Get24HTime() {
    return Get24HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes();
}

public String Get24HFullTime() {
    return Get24HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes() + ":" + GetSeconds();
}

public String Get12HTime() {
    return Get12HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes();
}

public String Get12HFullTime() {
    return Get12HHour() + ":" + GetMinutes() + ":" + GetSeconds();
}

import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;

public class DateDemo {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      Date dNow = new Date( );
      SimpleDateFormat ft = 
      new SimpleDateFormat ("E yyyy.MM.dd 'at' hh:mm:ss a zzz");
      System.out.println("Current Date: " + ft.format(dNow));
   }
}

you can use date for fet current data. so using SimpleDateFormat get format

Use:

String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
System.out.println(timeStamp );

(It's working.)

tl;dr

Instant.now()                         // Capture the current moment in UTC, with a resolution of nanoseconds. Returns a `Instant` object.

… or …

ZonedDateTime.now(                    // Capture the current moment as seen in…
    ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" )   // … the wall-clock time used by the people of a particular region (a time zone).
)                                     // Returns a `ZonedDateTime` object.

java.time

A few of the Answers mention that java.time classes are the modern replacement for the troublesome old legacy date-time classes bundled with the earliest versions of Java. Below is a bit more information.

Time zone

The other Answers fail to explain how a time zone is crucial in determining the current date and time. For any given moment, the date and the time vary around the globe by zone. For example, a few minutes after midnight is a new day in Paris France while still being “yesterday” in Montréal Québec.

Instant

Much of your business logic and data storage/exchange should be done in UTC, as a best practice.

To get the current moment in UTC with a resolution in nanoseconds, use Instant class. Conventional computer hardware clocks are limited in their accuracy, so the current moment may be captured in milliseconds or microseconds rather than nanoseconds.

Instant instant = Instant.now();

ZonedDateTime

You can adjust that Instant into other time zones. Apply a ZoneId object to get a ZonedDateTime.

ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
ZonedDateTime zdt = instant.atZone( z );

We can skip the Instant and get the current ZonedDateTime directly.

ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.now( z );

Always pass that optional time zone argument. If omitted, your JVM’s current default time zone is applied. The default can change at any moment, even during runtime. Do not subject your app to an externality out of your control. Always specify the desired/expected time zone.

ZonedDateTime do_Not_Do_This = ZonedDateTime.now(); // BAD - Never rely implicitly on the current default time zone.

You can later extract an Instant from the ZonedDateTime.

Instant instant = zdt.toInstant();

Always use an Instant or ZonedDateTime rather than a LocalDateTime when you want an actual moment on the timeline. The Local… types purposely have no concept of time zone so they represent only a rough idea of a possible moment. To get an actual moment you must assign a time zone to transform the Local… types into a ZonedDateTime and thereby make it meaningful.

LocalDate

The LocalDate class represents a date-only value without time-of-day and without time zone.

ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" );
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z );  // Always pass a time zone.

Strings

To generate a String representing the date-time value, simply call toString on the java.time classes for the standard ISO 8601 formats.

String output = myLocalDate.toString();  // 2016-09-23

… or …

String output = zdt.toString();  // 2016-09-23T12:34:56.789+03:00[America/Montreal]

The ZonedDateTime class extends the standard format by wisely appending the name of the time zone in square brackets.

For other formats, search Stack Overflow for many Questions and Answers on the DateTimeFormatter class.

Avoid LocalDateTime

Contrary to the comment on the Question by RamanSB, you should not use LocalDateTime class for the current date-time.

The LocalDateTime purposely lacks any time zone or offset-from-UTC information. So, this is not appropriate when you are tracking a specific moment on the timeline. Certainly not appropriate for capturing the current moment.

A LocalDateTime has only a date and a time-of-day such as "noon on 23rd of January 2020", but we have no idea if that is noon in Tokyo Japan or noon in Toledo Ohio US, two different moments many hours apart.

The “Local” wording is counter-intuitive. It means any locality rather than any one specific locality. For example Christmas this year starts at midnight on the 25th of December: 2017-12-25T00:00:00, to be represented as a LocalDateTime. But this means midnight at various points around the globe at different times. Midnight happens first in Kiribati, later in New Zealand, hours more later in India, and so on, with several more hours passing before Christmas begins in France when the kids in Canada are still awaiting that day. Each one of these Christmas-start points would be represented as a separate ZonedDateTime.

From outside your system

If you cannot trust your system clock, see Java: Get current Date and Time from Server not System clock and my Answer.

java.time.Clock

To harness an alternate supplier of the current moment, write a subclass of the abstract java.time.Clock class.

You can pass your Clock implementation as an argument to the various java.time methods. For example, Instant.now( clock ).

Instant instant = Instant.now( yourClockGoesHere ) ;

For testing purposes, note the alternate implementations of Clock available statically from Clock itself: fixed, offset, tick, and more.

About java.time

The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date, Calendar, & SimpleDateFormat.

To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.

The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.

You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

• Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, Java SE 11, and later - Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
  • Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
• Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
  • Most of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
• Android
  • Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
  • For earlier Android (<26), the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). See How to use ThreeTenABP….

The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.

Just create a Date object...

import java.util.Date;

Date date = new Date();

(Attention: only for use with Java versions <8. For Java 8+ check other replies.)

If you just need to output a time stamp in format YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM.SS (very frequent case) then here's the way to do it:

String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss").format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());