Get Current Date and Time in Java

There are many ways to get current date and time in java. There are many classes that can be used to get current date and time in java.

1. java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter class
2. java.text.SimpleDateFormat class
3. java.time.LocalDate class
4. java.time.LocalTime class
5. java.time.LocalDateTime class
6. java.time.Clock class
7. java.util.Date class
8. java.sql.Date class
9. java.util.Calendar class

Get Current Date and Time: java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter

The LocalDateTime.now() method returns the instance of LocalDateTime class. If we print the instance of LocalDateTime class, it prints current date and time. To format the current date, you can use DateTimeFormatter class which is included in JDK 1.8.

Output:

2017/11/06 12:11:58

Get Current Date and Time: java.text.SimpleDateFormat

The SimpleDateFormat class is also used for formatting date and time. But it is old approach.

Output:

06/11/2017 12:26:18

Get Current Date: java.time.LocalDate

The LocalDate.now() method returns the instance of LocalDate class. If we print the instance of LocalDate class, it prints current date.

Output:

2017-01-23

Get Current Time: java.time.LocalTime

The LocalTime.now() method returns the instance of LocalTime class. If we print the instance of LocalTime class, it prints current time.

Output:

00:01:14.341

Get Current Date & Time: java.time.LocalDateTime

The LocalDateTime.now() method returns the instance of LocalDateTime class. If we print the instance of LocalDateTime class, it prints current date and time both.

Output:

2017-01-24T00:03:31.593

Get Current Date & Time: java.time.Clock

The Clock.systemUTC().instant() method returns current date and time both.

Output:

2017-01-23T18:35:23.669Z

Get Current Date & Time: java.util.Date

By printing the instance of java.util.Date class, you can print current date and time in java. There are two ways to do so.

1st way:

2nd way:

Output:

Thu Mar 26 08:22:02 IST 2015

Get Current Date: java.sql.Date

By printing the instance of java.sql.Date class, you can print current date in java. It doesn't print time. This date instance is generally used to save current date in database.

Output:

2015-03-26

Get Current Date & Time: java.util.Calendar

Calendar class can be used to get the instance of Date class. The getTime() method of Calendar class returns the instance of java.util.Date. The Calendar.getInstance() method returns the instance of Calendar class.

Output:

Thu Mar 26 08:22:02 IST 2015

Note: It is recommended to use Calendar class for getting current date and time in classical Date API. Since Java 8, you can use LocalDate, LocalTime or LocalDateTime classes.