How to get current timestamps in Java
This article shows few Java examples to get the current date time or timestamp in Java. (Updated with Java 8).
Code snippets
// 2021-03-24 16:48:05.591
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
// 2021-03-24 16:48:05.591
Date date = new Date();
Timestamp timestamp2 = new Timestamp(date.getTime());
// convert Instant to Timestamp
Timestamp ts = Timestamp.from(Instant.now())
// convert ZonedDateTime to Instant to Timestamp
Timestamp ts = Timestamp.from(ZonedDateTime.now().toInstant()));
// convert Timestamp to Instant
Instant instant = ts.toInstant();
Table of contents
- 1. Java Timestamp examples
- 2. Convert Instant to/from Timestamp
- 3. Insert Timestamp into a table
- 4. References
1. Java Timestamp examples
The below program uses java.sql.Timestamp
to get the current timestamp and format the display with SimpleDateFormat
.
TimeStampExample.java
package com.mkyong.app;
import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class TimeStampExample {
// 2021.03.24.16.34.26
private static final SimpleDateFormat sdf1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd.HH.mm.ss");
// 2021-03-24T16:44:39.083+08:00
private static final SimpleDateFormat sdf2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSXXX");
// 2021-03-24 16:48:05
private static final SimpleDateFormat sdf3 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
public static void main(String[] args) {
// method 1
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.println(timestamp); // 2021-03-24 16:34:26.666
// method 2 - via Date
Date date = new Date();
System.out.println(new Timestamp(date.getTime())); // 2021-03-24 16:34:26.666
// number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT
System.out.println(timestamp.getTime()); // 1616574866666
System.out.println(sdf1.format(timestamp)); // 2021.03.24.16.34.26
System.out.println(sdf2.format(timestamp)); // 2021-03-24T16:48:05.591+08:00
System.out.println(sdf3.format(timestamp)); // 2021-03-24 16:48:05
}
}
Output
Terminal
2021-03-24 16:48:05.591
2021-03-24 16:48:05.591
1616575685591
2021.03.24.16.48.05
2021-03-24T16:48:05.591+08:00
2021-03-24 16:48:05
2. Convert Instant to/from Timestamp
This example shows how to convert the new Java 8 java.time.Instant
to and from the legacy java.sql.Timestamp
.
// convert Instant to Timestamp
Timestamp ts = Timestamp.from(Instant.now())
// convert Timestamp to Instant
Instant instant = ts.toInstant();
InstantExample.java
package com.mkyong.app;
import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.time.Instant;
public class InstantExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.println(timestamp); // 2021-03-24 17:12:03.311
System.out.println(timestamp.getTime()); // 1616577123311
// Convert Timestamp to Instant
Instant instant = timestamp.toInstant();
System.out.println(instant); // 2021-03-24T09:12:03.311Z
System.out.println(instant.toEpochMilli()); // 1616577123311
// Convert Instant to Timestamp
Timestamp tsFromInstant = Timestamp.from(instant);
System.out.println(tsFromInstant.getTime()); // 1616577123311
}
}
Output
Terminal
2021-03-24 17:12:03.311
1616577123311
2021-03-24T09:12:03.311Z
1616577123311
1616577123311
3. Insert Timestamp into a table
The java.sql.Timestamp
is still widely used in JDBC programming. See the below conversions:
// Java 8, java.time.*
// convert LocalDateTime to Timestamp
preparedStatement.setTimestamp(1, Timestamp.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now()));
// convert Instant to Timestamp
preparedStatement.setTimestamp(1, Timestamp.from(Instant.now()));
// Convert ZonedDateTime to Instant to Timestamp
preparedStatement.setTimestamp(3, Timestamp.from(ZonedDateTime.now().toInstant()));
The below example is a JDBC example of inserting a Timestamp
into the table.
JdbcExample.java
package com.mkyong.app;
import java.math.BigDecimal;
import java.sql.*;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
public class JdbcExample {
private static final String SQL_INSERT = "INSERT INTO EMPLOYEE (NAME, SALARY, CREATED_DATE) VALUES (?,?,?)";
public static void main(String[] args) {
try (Connection conn = DriverManager.getConnection(
"jdbc:postgresql://127.0.0.1:5432/test", "postgres", "password");
PreparedStatement preparedStatement = conn.prepareStatement(SQL_INSERT)) {
preparedStatement.setString(1, "mkyong");
preparedStatement.setBigDecimal(2, new BigDecimal("799.88"));
preparedStatement.setTimestamp(3, Timestamp.valueOf(LocalDateTime.now()));
// preparedStatement.setTimestamp(3, Timestamp.from(ZonedDateTime.now().toInstant()));
// preparedStatement.setTimestamp(3, Timestamp.from(Instant.now()));
int row = preparedStatement.executeUpdate();
// rows affected
System.out.println(row); //1
} catch (SQLException e) {
System.err.format("SQL State: %s\n%s", e.getSQLState(), e.getMessage());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Note
More examples to get current date time or timestamp in Java.
For Sql date and Time Stamp
java.sql.Date date = new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(date.getTime());
preparedStatement.setTimestamp(1, timestamp);
We updated the article with a JDBC example. Thanks for your feedback.
Thanks Dude. Your small code snippets must have helped millions of developers. I use them all the time.
I really love your blog my friend it saved my live so much time thanks a lot for what you do sincerly yours 🙂
hello sir/madam,
I have one problem please help me anyone
I have hard code date in my java code for 1 min to 8 hours with 6 currency pairs like
java.sql.Timestamp timestamp = Timestamp.valueOf(“2012-02-24 20:00:00”);
then its working fine.
If i have add for live chart like
java.sql.Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
or
java.util.Date date= new java.util.Date();
java.sql.Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(today.getTime());
then its taking lot of time to plot the jfreechart graph .
so give me some suggestion or any commands need to add in my java code.
Its urgent please.
This is what I have been searching for days. Thanks !
Both overloaded constructors work great.
This helped. Thanks!
real nice and all, but your output is not a timestamp. a timestamp is the number of seconds since january 1 1970. what you’re creating is some sort of arbitrarily formatted date string.
get with it, please.
Article is updated, to return the number of seconds since january 1 1970, use this
timestamp.getTime()