[java] How to get system time in Java without creating a new Date

I need to get the system date, and Java provides the new Date().getTime().

But I need to avoid new object allocation (I'm working on a embedded system). How can I get the system time without allocating a new Date object?

This should work:

System.currentTimeMillis();

Use System.currentTimeMillis() or System.nanoTime().

You can use System.currentTimeMillis().

At least in OpenJDK, Date uses this under the covers.

The call in System is to a native JVM method, so we can't say for sure there's no allocation happening under the covers, though it seems unlikely here.