Find current date and time in Kotlin

This article explores different ways to find the current date and time in Kotlin.

1. Using `java.util.LocalDateTime` class

The standard solution to get the current date-time using the system clock and default time-zone is using the LocalDateTime.now() function.

import java.time.LocalDateTime

fun main() {

val datetime = LocalDateTime.now()

println(datetime) // 2017-01-01T22:27:06.006276200

}

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To format the date-time, you can specify a formatter to the format() function or use the DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern() function instead to create a custom date-time formatter.

import java.time.LocalDateTime

import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter

fun main() {

val dateTime = LocalDateTime.now()

.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MMM dd yyyy, hh:mm:ss a"))

println(dateTime) // Jan 01 2017, 10:27:41 pm

}

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2. Using `java.util.ZonedDateTime` class

The ZonedDateTime class is used to get the time-zone information from the system clock. It can be used as follows:

import java.time.ZonedDateTime

fun main() {

val datetime = ZonedDateTime.now()

println(datetime) // 2017-01-01T22:27:55.937761200+05:30[Etc/UTC]

}

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You can specify the Zone information to the ZonedDateTime.now() function to get the current date-time in the desired time-zone.

import java.time.ZoneId

import java.time.ZonedDateTime

fun main() {

val dateTime = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("America/Chicago"))

// 2017-01-01T10:58:17.691405100-06:00[America/Chicago]

println(dateTime)

}

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To format date and time, you can pass the date-time formatter using the DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern() function.

import java.time.ZoneId

import java.time.ZonedDateTime

import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter

fun main() {

val timestamp = ZonedDateTime.now(ZoneId.of("America/Sao_Paulo"))

.format(DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM.dd.yyy hh.mm.ss a"))

println(timestamp) // 01.01.2017 01.59.13 pm

}

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3. Using `java.util.Date` class

Another solution to get the current date and time, with millisecond precision, is using the java.util.Date class.

import java.util.Date

fun main() {

val date = Date()

println(date) // Sat Jan 01 22:24:51 EST 2017

}

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To format and parse date with the standard pattern letters, you can use the SimpleDateFormat class.

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat

import java.util.*

fun main() {

val dateFormat = SimpleDateFormat("d MMM yyyy, EEE, HH:mm:ss z")

val date = dateFormat.format(Date())

println(date) // 1 Jan 2017, Sat, 22:26:02 EST

}

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4. Using `java.util.Instant` class

The Instant class represents an instantaneous point on the time-line. You can use the Instant.now() function to obtain the current instant using the system clock.

import java.time.Instant

fun main() {

val instant = Instant.now()

println(instant) // 2017-01-01T16:59:30.663439800Z

}

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That’s all about finding the current date and time in Kotlin.

Find current date and time in Kotlin

1. Using java.util.LocalDateTime class

2. Using java.util.ZonedDateTime class

3. Using java.util.Date class

4. Using java.util.Instant class

1. Using `java.util.LocalDateTime` class

2. Using `java.util.ZonedDateTime` class

3. Using `java.util.Date` class

4. Using `java.util.Instant` class