How to get current timestamps in Java

By mkyong | Updated: March 24, 2021

Viewed: 251,273 (+1,594 pv/w)

Tags: current date time date instant java 8 java.time timestamp

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.

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

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();

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

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.

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();
      }

  }
}

4. References

• Java Date Time Tutorials
• JDBC PreparedStatement – Insert a row
• How to get current date time in Java
• Wikipedia – Epoch time
• Wikipedia – Timestamp
• Timestamp
• LocalDateTime
• ZonedDateTime
• Instant
• Date
• DateTimeFormatter
• SimpleDateFormat