1182

votes

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

43 answers! While many of them were good when they were written, the good answer to use in 2018 is here. – Ole V.V.

Fun Fact: Every Android Developer has been here. – iamnaran

1409

votes

You could use:

import java.util.Calendar

Date currentTime = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();

There are plenty of constants in Calendar for everything you need.

Edit:
Check Calendar class documentation

494

votes

You can (but no longer should - see below!) use android.text.format.Time:

Time now = new Time();
now.setToNow();

From the reference linked above:

The Time class is a faster replacement for the java.util.Calendar and java.util.GregorianCalendar classes. An instance of the Time class represents a moment in time, specified with second precision.

NOTE 1: It's been several years since I wrote this answer, and it is about an old, Android-specific and now deprecated class. Google now says that "[t]his class has a number of issues and it is recommended that GregorianCalendar is used instead".

NOTE 2: Even though the Time class has a toMillis(ignoreDaylightSavings) method, this is merely a convenience to pass to methods that expect time in milliseconds. The time value is only precise to one second; the milliseconds portion is always 000. If in a loop you do

Time time = new Time();   time.setToNow();
Log.d("TIME TEST", Long.toString(time.toMillis(false)));
... do something that takes more than one millisecond, but less than one second ...

The resulting sequence will repeat the same value, such as 1410543204000, until the next second has started, at which time 1410543205000 will begin to repeat.

406

votes

If you want to get the date and time in a specific pattern you can use the following:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd_HHmmss", Locale.getDefault());
String currentDateandTime = sdf.format(new Date());

Or,

Date:

String currentDate = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy", Locale.getDefault()).format(new Date());

Time:

String currentTime = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss", Locale.getDefault()).format(new Date());

243

votes

For those who might rather prefer a customized format, you can use:

DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, d MMM yyyy, HH:mm");
String date = df.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());

Whereas you can have DateFormat patterns such as:

"yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z" ---- 2001.07.04 AD at 12:08:56 PDT
"hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz" ----------- 12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time
"EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z"------- Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:08:56 -0700
"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"------- 2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-0700
"yyMMddHHmmssZ"-------------------- 010704120856-0700
"K:mm a, z" ----------------------- 0:08 PM, PDT
"h:mm a" -------------------------- 12:08 PM
"EEE, MMM d, ''yy" ---------------- Wed, Jul 4, '01

128

votes

Actually, it's safer to set the current timezone set on the device with Time.getCurrentTimezone(), or else you will get the current time in UTC.

Time today = new Time(Time.getCurrentTimezone());
today.setToNow();

Then, you can get all the date fields you want, like, for example:

textViewDay.setText(today.monthDay + "");             // Day of the month (1-31)
textViewMonth.setText(today.month + "");              // Month (0-11)
textViewYear.setText(today.year + "");                // Year 
textViewTime.setText(today.format("%k:%M:%S"));  // Current time

See android.text.format.Time class for all the details.

UPDATE

As many people are pointing out, Google says this class has a number of issues and is not supposed to be used anymore:

This class has a number of issues and it is recommended that GregorianCalendar is used instead.

Known issues:

For historical reasons when performing time calculations all arithmetic currently takes place using 32-bit integers. This limits the reliable time range representable from 1902 until 2037.See the wikipedia article on the Year 2038 problem for details. Do not rely on this behavior; it may change in the future. Calling switchTimezone(String) on a date that cannot exist, such as a wall time that was skipped due to a DST transition, will result in a date in 1969 (i.e. -1, or 1 second before 1st Jan 1970 UTC). Much of the formatting / parsing assumes ASCII text and is therefore not suitable for use with non-ASCII scripts.

82

votes

For the current date and time, use:

String mydate = java.text.DateFormat.getDateTimeInstance().format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());

Which outputs:

Feb 27, 2012 5:41:23 PM

73

votes

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.

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.

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

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

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. Hibernate 5 & JPA 2.2 support java.time.

Where to obtain the java.time classes?

Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, Java SE 11, and later - Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
- Java 9 brought some minor features and fixes.
Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
- Most of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
Android
- Later versions of Android (26+) bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
- For earlier Android (<26), the process of API desugaring brings a subset of the java.time functionality not originally built into Android.
  - If the desugaring does not offer what you need, the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above) to Android. See How to use ThreeTenABP….

62

votes

Try with this way All formats are given below to get date and time format.

    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    SimpleDateFormat dateformat = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss aa");
    String datetime = dateformat.format(c.getTime());
    System.out.println(datetime);

56

votes

To ge the current time you can use System.currentTimeMillis() which is standard in Java. Then you can use it to create a date

Date currentDate = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis());

And as mentioned by others to create a time

Time currentTime = new Time();
currentTime.setToNow();

38

votes

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.

33

votes

Easy, you can dissect the time to get separate values for current time, as follows:

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(); 

  int millisecond = cal.get(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
  int second = cal.get(Calendar.SECOND);
  int minute = cal.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
        //12 hour format
  int hour = cal.get(Calendar.HOUR);
        //24 hour format
  int hourofday = cal.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);

Same goes for the date, as follows:

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(); 

  int dayofyear = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
  int year = cal.get(Calendar.YEAR);
  int dayofweek = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);
  int dayofmonth = cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);

30

votes

There are several options as Android is mainly Java, but if you wish to write it in a textView, the following code would do the trick:

String currentDateTimeString = DateFormat.getDateInstance().format(new Date());

// textView is the TextView view that should display it
textView.setText(currentDateTimeString);

25

votes

SimpleDateFormat databaseDateTimeFormate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
SimpleDateFormat databaseDateFormate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
SimpleDateFormat sdf1 = new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yy");
SimpleDateFormat sdf2 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' hh:mm:ss z");
SimpleDateFormat sdf3 = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, MMM d, ''yy");
SimpleDateFormat sdf4 = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm a");
SimpleDateFormat sdf5 = new SimpleDateFormat("h:mm");
SimpleDateFormat sdf6 = new SimpleDateFormat("H:mm:ss:SSS");
SimpleDateFormat sdf7 = new SimpleDateFormat("K:mm a,z");
SimpleDateFormat sdf8 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy.MMMMM.dd GGG hh:mm aaa");


String currentDateandTime = databaseDateTimeFormate.format(new Date());     //2009-06-30 08:29:36
String currentDateandTime = databaseDateFormate.format(new Date());     //2009-06-30
String currentDateandTime = sdf1.format(new Date());     //30.06.09
String currentDateandTime = sdf2.format(new Date());     //2009.06.30 AD at 08:29:36 PDT
String currentDateandTime = sdf3.format(new Date());     //Tue, Jun 30, '09
String currentDateandTime = sdf4.format(new Date());     //8:29 PM
String currentDateandTime = sdf5.format(new Date());     //8:29
String currentDateandTime = sdf6.format(new Date());     //8:28:36:249
String currentDateandTime = sdf7.format(new Date());     //8:29 AM,PDT
String currentDateandTime = sdf8.format(new Date());     //2009.June.30 AD 08:29 AM

Date format Patterns

G   Era designator (before christ, after christ)
y   Year (e.g. 12 or 2012). Use either yy or yyyy.
M   Month in year. Number of M's determine length of format (e.g. MM, MMM or MMMMM)
d   Day in month. Number of d's determine length of format (e.g. d or dd)
h   Hour of day, 1-12 (AM / PM) (normally hh)
H   Hour of day, 0-23 (normally HH)
m   Minute in hour, 0-59 (normally mm)
s   Second in minute, 0-59 (normally ss)
S   Millisecond in second, 0-999 (normally SSS)
E   Day in week (e.g Monday, Tuesday etc.)
D   Day in year (1-366)
F   Day of week in month (e.g. 1st Thursday of December)
w   Week in year (1-53)
W   Week in month (0-5)
a   AM / PM marker
k   Hour in day (1-24, unlike HH's 0-23)
K   Hour in day, AM / PM (0-11)
z   Time Zone

17

votes

final Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    int mYear = c.get(Calendar.YEAR);
    int mMonth = c.get(Calendar.MONTH);
    int mDay = c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);

textView.setText(""+mDay+"-"+mMonth+"-"+mYear);

16

votes

This is a method that will be useful to get date and time:

private String getDate(){
    DateFormat dfDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
    String date=dfDate.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
    DateFormat dfTime = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm");
    String time = dfTime.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());
    return date + " " + time;
}

You can call this method and get the current date and time values:

2017/01//09 19:23

16

votes

For the current date and time with format, Use

In Java

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

In Kotlin

if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
    val current = LocalDateTime.now()
    val formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd.MM.yyyy. HH:mm:ss")
    var myDate: String =  current.format(formatter)
    Log.d("Date","DATE : " + myDate)
} else {
    var date = Date()
    val formatter = SimpleDateFormat("MMM dd yyyy HH:mma")
    val myDate: String = formatter.format(date)
    Log.d("Date","DATE : " + myDate)
}

Date Formater patterns

"yyyy.MM.dd G 'at' HH:mm:ss z" ---- 2001.07.04 AD at 12:08:56 PDT
"hh 'o''clock' a, zzzz" ----------- 12 o'clock PM, Pacific Daylight Time
"EEE, d MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss Z"------- Wed, 4 Jul 2001 12:08:56 -0700
"yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSSZ"------- 2001-07-04T12:08:56.235-0700
"yyMMddHHmmssZ"-------------------- 010704120856-0700
"K:mm a, z" ----------------------- 0:08 PM, PDT
"h:mm a" -------------------------- 12:08 PM
"EEE, MMM d, ''yy" ---------------- Wed, Jul 4, '01

13

votes

If you need the current date:

Calendar cc = Calendar.getInstance();
int year = cc.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int month = cc.get(Calendar.MONTH);
int mDay = cc.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
System.out.println("Date", year + ":" + month + ":" + mDay);

If you need the current time:

 int mHour = cc.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
 int mMinute = cc.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
 System.out.println("time_format" + String.format("%02d:%02d", mHour , mMinute));

12

votes

Time time = new Time();
time.setToNow();
System.out.println("time: " + time.hour+":"+time.minute);

This will give you, for example, 12:32.

Remember to import android.text.format.Time;

12

votes

    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);

11

votes

You can also use android.os.SystemClock. For example SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() will give you more accurate time readings when the phone is asleep.

10

votes

You can simply use the following code:

 DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm"); // Format time
 String time = df.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());

 DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd"); // Format date
 String date = df1.format(Calendar.getInstance().getTime());

9

votes

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

8

votes

Date todayDate = new Date();
todayDate.getDay();
todayDate.getHours();
todayDate.getMinutes();
todayDate.getMonth();
todayDate.getTime();

8

votes

Time now = new Time();
now.setToNow();

Try this works for me as well.

8

votes

You can obtain the date by using:

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

This will give you a result in a nice form, as in this example: "2014/02/09".

7

votes

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

6

votes

Try This

String mytime = (DateFormat.format("dd-MM-yyyy hh:mm:ss", new java.util.Date()).toString());

5

votes

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);
}

4

votes

You should use Calender class according to new API. Date class is deprecated now.

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();

String date = ""+cal.get(Calendar.DATE)+"-"+(cal.get(Calendar.MONTH)+1)+"-"+cal.get(Calendar.YEAR);

String time = ""+cal.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY)+":"+cal.get(Calendar.MINUTE);

4

votes

Try to use the below code:

 Date date = new Date();
 SimpleDateFormat dateFormatWithZone = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'",Locale.getDefault());  
 String currentDate = dateFormatWithZone.format(date);

How to get current time and date in Android

30 Answers

tl;dr

Details

java.time

`Instant`

Time Zone

Generating Strings

ISO 8601

Custom format

Localizing

About java.time