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Gaurav Kukade
Gaurav Kukade Hi 👋🏼 I'm Gaurav Kukade, a software developer. I write tutorials for Java programming language and related technologies.

How To Get Current Date Time In Java?

We need to use Date and Time in day-to-day programming. In this article, we will see how to get the current date and time in Java.

Introduction

There are many ways to get the current date and time in Java. One of them is, using Legacy date and calendar API, and another one is using Java 8 date and time API.

  1. Java Date API (java.util.Date) (Legacy)
  2. Java Calendar API (java.util.Calendar) (Legacy)
  3. LocalDate (java.time.LocalDate)
  4. LocalTime (java.time.LocalTime)
  5. LocalDateTime (java.time.LocalDateTime)
  6. ZonedDateTime (java.time.ZonedDateTime)
  7. Instant (java.time.Instant)

We will see all of the above mentioned ways to get current date time in java.

We have used SimpleDateFormat for legacy Date and Calendar classes and DateTimeFormatter for Java 8 Date/Time API.

1. Java Date API (java.util.Date) (Legacy)

To get the current date and time using the java.util.Date class, we can create a new date object. And we can format it using SimpleDateFormat.

I have given an example below that shows how to get the current date and time using the java.util.Date class.

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

/**
 * A java program to get current date time using the java.util.Date class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 *
 */
public class DateExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
		Date date = new Date();  
		
		// print date object
		System.out.println(date);  // Sat May 15 12:21:39 IST 2021
		
		// print formated date object
		System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));    // 15/05/2021 12:21:39
		
		// creates new Date() object using System.currentTimeMillis()
		Date date2 = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
		System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));    // 15/05/2021 12:21:39	
	}

}

Output:

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Sat May 15 12:21:39 IST 2021
15/05/2021 12:21:39
15/05/2021 12:21:39

Check above code as GitHub Gist

2. Java Calendar API (java.util.Calendar) (Legacy)

We can use the java.util.Calendar class to get the instance of the Date class. The getTime() method of Calendar class returns the instance of java.util.Date

I have given an example below that shows how to get the current date and time using the java.util.Calendar class.

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

/**
 * A java program to get current date time using the java.util.Calendar class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class CalendarExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
		
		// get the instance of the java.util.Calendar
		Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
		
		// getTime() method returns the instance of java.util.Date
		Date date = calendar.getTime();
		
		// prints the date object
		System.out.println(date);  // Sat May 15 12:50:17 IST 2021
		
		// print the formated date 
		System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));  // 15/05/2021 12:50:17

	}

}

Output:

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Sat May 15 12:50:17 IST 2021
15/05/2021 12:50:17

Check above code as GitHub Gist

3. LocalDate (java.time.LocalDate)

LocalDate is one of the most commonly used classes of Java date/Time API. As given in the name specifies the local date.

We can use this class when zones are not required to specify. The LocalDate represents a date in ISO format (yyyy-MM-dd) without time. ex. 2021-05-15

I have given an example below that shows how to get the current local date using the java.time.LocalDate class.

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import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
/**
 * A java program to get local date using the java.time.LocalDate class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class LocalDateExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd");
		LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
		
		// print localDate object
		System.out.println(localDate); // 2021-05-15
		
		// print formatted localDate
		System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(localDate)); // 2021/05/15

	}

}

Output:

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2021-05-15
2021/05/15

Check above code as GitHub Gist

4. LocalTime (java.time.LocalTime)

LocalTime is one of the most commonly used classes of Java date/Time API. As given in the name specifies the local time.

We can use this class when zones are not required to specify. The LocalTime represents a time without the date. ex. 20:21:32

I have given an example below that shows how to get the current local time using the java.time.LocalTime class.

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import java.time.LocalTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
/**
 * A java program to get local time using the java.time.LocalTime class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class LocalTimeExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm:ss");
		LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();
		
		// print localTime object
		System.out.println(localTime);  // 13:11:46.140359217
				
		// print formatted localTime
        System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(localTime));  // 13:11:46

	}

}

Output:

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13:11:46.140359217
13:11:46

Check above code as GitHub Gist

5. LocalDateTime (java.time.LocalDateTime)

LocalDateTime is one of the most commonly used classes of Java date/Time API. As given in the name specifies the local date and time.

We can use this class when zones are not required to specify. The LocalDateTime represents a combination of date and time. ex. 2021-05-15

I have given an example below that shows how to get the current local date time using the java.time.LocalDateTime class.

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import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
/**
 * A java program to get local date time using the java.time.LocalDateTime class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class LocalDateTimeExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
		LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
		
		// print localDateTime object
		System.out.println(localDateTime);  // 2021-05-15T13:20:13.329481722
				
		// print formatted localDateTime
        System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(localDateTime)); //15/05/2021 13:20:13

	}

}

Output:

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2021-05-15T13:20:13.329481722
15/05/2021 13:20:13

Check above code as GitHub Gist

6. ZonedDateTime (java.time.ZonedDateTime)

When we need to use zone specific date and time, we can use the ZonedDateTime class.

The different zones are represented by the ZoneId. We can get all the list of available ZoneIds using the getAvailableZoneIds()

The code snippet to get the set of all available ZoneIds is given below.

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Set<String> allZoneIds = ZoneId.getAvailableZoneIds();

We can use ZonedDateTime.now() method to get system default zone local time. We can specify the zone using now.withZoneSameInstant(zoneId) method.

I have given an example below that shows how to get the zone-specific date time using the java.time.ZonedDateTime class.

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import java.time.OffsetDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.ZoneOffset;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
/**
 * A java program to get the zone specific date time using the java.time.ZonedDateTime class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class ZonedDateTimeExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"); 
		
		// get system default zone date time, 
		// my system default zone is +05:30 
		ZonedDateTime now = ZonedDateTime.now();
		System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(now));   // 2021/05/15 13:45:55                 
		System.out.println(now.getOffset()); // +05:30
		
		// check the  default time zone
		System.out.println(ZoneOffset.systemDefault());   // Asia/Kolkata
		System.out.println(OffsetDateTime.now().getOffset());   // +05:30
		
		// get get current date time for Kolkata, India
		ZonedDateTime indiaDateTime = now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));  
		System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(indiaDateTime));      // 2021/05/15 13:45:55    
		System.out.println(indiaDateTime.getOffset()); // +05:30
		
		
		// get get current date time for Paris , France
		ZonedDateTime franceDateTime = now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Europe/Paris"));
		System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(franceDateTime));     // 2021/05/15 10:15:55     
		System.out.println(franceDateTime.getOffset()); // +02:00

	}

}

Output:

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2021/05/15 13:45:55
+05:30
Asia/Kolkata
+05:30
2021/05/15 13:45:55
+05:30
2021/05/15 10:15:55
+02:00

Check above code as GitHub Gist

7. Instant (java.time.Instant)

We can use java.time.Instant to get epoch timestamps in seconds and milliseconds.

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import java.time.Instant;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;

/**
 * A java program to get current date time using the jjava.time.Instant class
 * @author Gaurav Kukade at coderolls.com
 */
public class InstantExample {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		Instant instant = Instant.now();
		
		// print instant object
		System.out.println(instant);  // 2021-05-15T10:11:45.331237189Z
		
		// get epoch time in milliseconds 
		// epoch timestamp is number of milliseconds/seconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT
		System.out.println(instant.toEpochMilli()); // 1621073505331
		
		// get epoch time in seconds 
		System.out.println(instant.getEpochSecond());  // 1621073505
		
		// we can convert instant to LocalDateTime, LocalDate, LocalTime
		DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
		LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.ofInstant(instant, ZoneId.systemDefault());
		System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(localDateTime)); // 15/05/2021 15:41:45

	}

}

Output:

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2021-05-15T10:11:45.331237189Z
1621073505331
1621073505
15/05/2021 15:41:45

Check above code as GitHub Gist

Conclusion

We have seen all the ways to get the current date and time in Java. It is recommended to use the Java 8 Time/Date API.

Below I have listed down the code snippets to get the current date and time in Java for the respective class.

Usingjava.util.Date class

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SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
Date date = new Date();  

// print date object
System.out.println(date);  // Sat May 15 12:21:39 IST 2021

// print formated date object
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));    // 15/05/2021 12:21:39

java.util.Calendar class

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// get the instance of the java.util.Calendar
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();

// getTime() method returns the instance of java.util.Date
Date date = calendar.getTime();
System.out.println(date);  // Sat May 15 12:50:17 IST 2021

java.time.LocalDate class

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LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
System.out.println(localDate); // 2021-05-15

java.time.LocalTime class

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LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.now();
System.out.println(localTime);  // 13:11:46.140359217

java.time.LocalDateTime class

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LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
System.out.println(localDateTime);  // 2021-05-15T13:20:13.329481722

java.time.ZonedDateTime class

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DateTimeFormatter dateTimeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss"); 

ZonedDateTime now = ZonedDateTime.now();
ZonedDateTime indiaDateTime = now.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata"));  

System.out.println(dateTimeFormatter.format(indiaDateTime));      // 2021/05/15 13:45:55    
System.out.println(indiaDateTime.getOffset()); // +05:30

java.time.Instant class

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Instant instant = Instant.now();

System.out.println(instant);  // 2021-05-15T10:11:45.331237189Z
System.out.println(instant.toEpochMilli()); // 1621073505331
System.out.println(instant.getEpochSecond());  // 1621073505

So, we have seen all the ways to get the current date and time in Java. You can comment below if you know any other way to get the current date time in Java.

If you want to check, how can we get the current timestamps in Java? we have written an article on it.

You can check my YouTube channel here

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