In Java, there are different ways to get the current date and time. You can get the current date and time through the following classes:

Date represents a specific instant in time, with millisecond precision.
Calendar is an abstract class that provides methods for converting between a specific instant in time and a set of calendar fields.
LocalDate represents date without a time-zone in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2007-12-03.
LocalDateTime represents date-time without a time-zone in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2007-12-03T10:15:30.
ZonedDateTime represents date-time with a time-zone in the ISO-8601 calendar system, such as 2007-12-03T10:15:30+01:00 Europe/Paris.

Here are some examples to get the current date time using the classes mentioned above.

For Java 8 and onward

For Java 8 and onward, it is recommended to use the new Date and Time APIs that are part of java.time package.

import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.ZonedDateTime;
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter;
 
public class DateTime8Current {
 
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.now();
        System.out.println(localDate.toString());
 
        LocalDateTime localDateTime = LocalDateTime.now();
        System.out.println(localDateTime.toString());
 
        ZonedDateTime zonedDateTime = ZonedDateTime.now();
        System.out.println(zonedDateTime.toString());
 
        // Convert current date time to different formats than ISO-8601.
        // **************************************************************
        System.out.println(
                localDate.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("E, dd MMMM yyyy")));
 
        System.out.println(
                localDateTime.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd hh:mm:ss a")));
 
        System.out.println(
                zonedDateTime.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss z")));
    }
}

Output

2019-11-17
2019-11-17T09:45:34.186370
2019-11-17T09:45:34.186656-05:00[America/Toronto]
Sun, 17 November 2019
2019/11/17 09:45:34 PM
2019/11/17 09:45:34 EST

For Java 7 and below

For Java 7 and below, you can use Date and Calendar classes.

import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
 
public class DateTime7Current {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
 
        // Using Date class.
        Date date = new Date();
        System.out.println(date.toString());
 
        // Using Calendar class.
        //        SimpleDateFormat is used because 
        //        Calendar.toString() outputs more data than needed.
        Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
        System.out.println(sdf.format(calendar.getTime()));
    }
}

Output

Sun Nov 17 09:47:55 EST 2019
2019/11/17 09:47:55

Github

For Java 8 and onward, use https://github.com/xuanngo2001/java-small/blob/master/src/net/openwritings/java/time/DateTime8Current.java.
For Java 7 and below, use https://github.com/xuanngo2001/java-small/blob/master/src/net/openwritings/java/time/DateTime7Current.java.

Java

About the author

Xuan Ngo is the founder of OpenWritings.net. He currently lives in Montreal, Canada. He loves to write about programming and open source subjects.

Java - How to get current date and time

For Java 8 and onward

For Java 7 and below

Github

About the author