How to Get Current TimeStamp in Java Date

Mohammad Irfan Feb 02, 2024 Java Java DateTime
  1. Get Current Timestamp Using the Timestamp Class in Java
  2. Get Current Timestamp Using the Date Class in Java
  3. Get Current Timestamp Using the ZonedDateTime Class in Java
  4. Get Current Timestamp Using the LocalDateTime Class in Java
  5. Get Current Timestamp Using the Instant Class in Java
  6. Get Current Timestamp Using the Timestamp Class in Java
  7. Get Current Timestamp Using the toInstant() Method in Java
How to Get Current TimeStamp in Java Date

This tutorial introduces how to get the current timestamp in Java and lists some example codes to understand the topic.

There are several ways to get the current timestamp in Java, such as the Timspamp class, Date class, ZonedDateTime class, LocalDateTime class, etc. Let’s see some examples.

Get Current Timestamp Using the Timestamp Class in Java

To get the current timestamp in Java, we can use the Timestamp class. Since this class does not have a default constructor, so we pass the time in milliseconds. We use the currentTimeMillis() method of System class to get the time. See the example below.

import java.sql.Timestamp;

public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Long datetime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(datetime);
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + timestamp);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp: 2021-03-06 17:24:57.107

Get Current Timestamp Using the Date Class in Java

We can use use the Date class of the util package to get the current timestamp. To format the timestamp in the yyyy.MM.dd format, we can use the SimpleDateFormat class. See the example below.

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

public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    SimpleDateFormat date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd.HH:mm:ss");
    String timeStamp = date.format(new Date());
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + timeStamp);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp: 2021.03.06.17:26:17

Get Current Timestamp Using the ZonedDateTime Class in Java

The ZonedDateTime class of Java datetime package creates a timestamp with the zone information. We use the systemDefault() method of ZoneId to get the system’s default zone and the now() method to get the current timestamp with the specified zoneId.

After getting the current timestamp, we use the ofPattern() method of the DateTimeFormatter class to get the timestamp in a specified format. See the example below.

import java.time.ZoneId;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;

public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    ZoneId zid = ZoneId.systemDefault();
    ZonedDateTime datetime = ZonedDateTime.now(zid);
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + datetime);
    // if want to format into a specific format
    DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu.MM.dd.HH:mm:ss");
    String timeStamp = datetime.format(formatter);
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + timeStamp);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp: 2021-03-06T17:35:52.722720362Z[Etc/UTC]
Current Time Stamp: 2021.03.06.17:35:52

Get Current Timestamp Using the LocalDateTime Class in Java

If you are working with Java 8, use the LocalDateTime class to get the current timestamp in Java. See the below example.

import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    LocalDateTime dateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp Default Format: " + dateTime);
    String timeStamp = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss").format(dateTime);
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + timeStamp);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp Default Format: 2021-02-27T14:15:46.196564
Current Time Stamp: 2021-02-27 14:15:46

Get Current Timestamp Using the Instant Class in Java

The Instant class can be used to get the current timestamp. We use the now() method of the Instant class to fetch the current timestamp in instants.

import java.time.Instant;
public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Instant timeStamp = Instant.now();
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp Default Format: " + timeStamp);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp Default Format: 2021-02-27T08:48:28.001913Z

Get Current Timestamp Using the Timestamp Class in Java

This is another solution to get the current timestamp in Java with the Timestamp and Instant class. See the example below.

import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.time.Instant;
public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    long time = System.currentTimeMillis();
    Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(time);
    Instant instant = timestamp.toInstant();
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + instant);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp: 2021-02-27T08:50:05.125Z

Get Current Timestamp Using the toInstant() Method in Java

If we have a date object representing the timestamp, we can also use the toInstant() method of the Date class to get the current timestamp.

import java.time.Instant;
import java.util.Date;
public class SimpleTesting {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Date date = new Date();
    Instant instant = date.toInstant();
    System.out.println("Current Time Stamp: " + instant);
  }
}

Output:

Current Time Stamp: 2021-02-27T08:51:34.223Z
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