Get current time and date on Android

Question

How can I get the current time and date in an Android app?

Answer 1

You can use the code:

Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
String strDate = sdf.format(c.getTime());

Output:

2014-11-11 00:47:55

You also get some more formatting options for SimpleDateFormat from here.

Answer 2

    SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
    Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
    System.out.println("time => " + dateFormat.format(cal.getTime()));

    String time_str = dateFormat.format(cal.getTime());

    String[] s = time_str.split(" ");

    for (int i = 0; i < s.length; i++) {
         System.out.println("date  => " + s[i]);
    }

    int year_sys = Integer.parseInt(s[0].split("/")[0]);
    int month_sys = Integer.parseInt(s[0].split("/")[1]);
    int day_sys = Integer.parseInt(s[0].split("/")[2]);

    int hour_sys = Integer.parseInt(s[1].split(":")[0]);
    int min_sys = Integer.parseInt(s[1].split(":")[1]);

    System.out.println("year_sys  => " + year_sys);
    System.out.println("month_sys  => " + month_sys);
    System.out.println("day_sys  => " + day_sys);

    System.out.println("hour_sys  => " + hour_sys);
    System.out.println("min_sys  => " + min_sys);

Answer 3

Well I had problems with some answers by the API so I fuse this code, I hope it serves them guys:

    Time t = new Time(Time.getCurrentTimezone());
    t.setToNow();
    String date1 = t.format("%Y/%m/%d");

    Date date = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
    SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm aa",
            Locale.ENGLISH);
    String var = dateFormat.format(date);
    String horafecha = var+ " - " + date1;

    tvTime.setText(horafecha);

Output: 03:25 PM - 2017/10/03

Answer 4

Below method will return current date and time in String, Use different time zone according to your actual time zone.I've used GMT

public static String GetToday(){
    Date presentTime_Date = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
    SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
    dateFormat.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));
    return dateFormat.format(presentTime_Date);
}

Answer 5

For a customized time and date format:

    SimpleDateFormat dateFormat= new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZZZZZ",Locale.ENGLISH);
    String cDateTime=dateFormat.format(new Date());

Output is like below format: 2015-06-18T10:15:56-05:00

Answer 6

tl;dr

Instant.now()  // Current moment in UTC.

…or…

ZonedDateTime.now( ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) )  // In a particular time zone

Details

The other Answers, while correct, are outdated. The old date-time classes have proven to be poorly designed, confusing, and troublesome.

java.time

Those old classes have been supplanted by the java.time framework.

• Java 8 and later: The java.time framework is built-in.
• Java 7 & 6: Use the backport of java.time.
• Android: Use this wrapped version of that backport.

These new classes are inspired by the highly successful Joda-Time project, defined by JSR 310, and extended by the ThreeTen-Extra project.

See the Oracle Tutorial.

Instant

An Instant is a moment on the timeline in UTC with resolution up to nanoseconds.

 Instant instant = Instant.now(); // Current moment in UTC.

Time Zone

Apply a time zone (ZoneId) to get a ZonedDateTime. If you omit the time zone your JVM’s current default time zone is implicitly applied. Better to specify explicitly the desired/expected time zone.

Use proper time zone names in the format of continent/region such as America/Montreal, Europe/Brussels, or Asia/Kolkata. Never use the 3-4 letter abbreviations such as EST or IST as they are neither standardized nor unique.

ZoneId zoneId = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ); // Or "Asia/Kolkata", "Europe/Paris", and so on.
ZonedDateTime zdt = ZonedDateTime.ofInstant( instant , zoneId );

Generating Strings

You can easily generate a String as a textual representation of the date-time value. You can go with a standard format, your own custom format, or an automatically localized format.

ISO 8601

You can call the toString methods to get text formatted using the common and sensible ISO 8601 standard.

String output = instant.toString();

2016-03-23T03:09:01.613Z

Note that for ZonedDateTime, the toString method extends the ISO 8601 standard by appending the name of the time zone in square brackets. Extremely useful and important information, but not standard.

2016-03-22T20:09:01.613-08:00[America/Los_Angeles]

Custom format

Or specify your own particular formatting pattern with the DateTimeFormatter class.

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern( "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm a" );

Specify a Locale for a human language (English, French, etc.) to use in translating the name of day/month and also in defining cultural norms such as the order of year and month and date. Note that Locale has nothing to do with time zone.

formatter = formatter.withLocale( Locale.US ); // Or Locale.CANADA_FRENCH or such.
String output = zdt.format( formatter );

Localizing

Better yet, let java.time do the work of localizing automatically.

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofLocalizedDateTime( FormatStyle.MEDIUM );
String output = zdt.format( formatter.withLocale( Locale.US ) );  // Or Locale.CANADA_FRENCH and so on.

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About java.time

The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date, Calendar, & SimpleDateFormat.

The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.

To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.

You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

• Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, and later
  • Built-in.
  • Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
  • Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
• Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
  • Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
• Android
  • Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
  • For earlier Android (<26), the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). See How to use ThreeTenABP….

The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.