Introduction:
This page will teach you about using the Date import in Java to output or get the current Time and/or Date.

When is this needed?
Adding a simple clock or date counter to an application adds a slightly more professional look to the overall appeal of the program, as well as having the time handy is always a good thing.

What imports are needed?
The imports we need to get the current Date and Time are;

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

these allows us to get the Date and Time, and then format them the way we want to.

Example:
Here is an example of sending the String "Current Date: " followed by the date in Day DayDay.Month.Month.Year.Year.Year.Year format, followed by a similar technique for the date:

1. Date
   
   dNow =
   
   new
   
   Date
   
   (
   
   )
   
   ;
   
2. SimpleDateFormat
   
   ft =
   
   new
   
   SimpleDateFormat
   
   (
   
   "E dd.MM.yyyy'. Current Time:' hh:mm:ss a zzz"
   
   )
   
   ;
   
3. System
   
   .out
   
   .println
   
   (
   
   "Current Date: "
   
   +
   
   ft.format
   
   (
   
   dNow)
   
   )
   
   ;
   

As you can probably tell, each character in the SimpleDateFormat stands for something different...
E - Day in full letters
d - Day in numeric values
M - Month in numeric values
y - Year in numeric values
h - Hours in numeric values
m - Minutes in numeric values
s - Seconds in numeric values
a - "AM"/"PM"
z - Timezone.

The output given from the example is:

Current Date: Sun 01.12.2013. Current Time: 09:29:31 PM GMT

Finished!

Book traversal links for Date and Time

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