What is the default timezone in java.util.Date

Question

If i create a new Date() object. What will be the default timezone it will print.

I have my machine running in GMT. And i am creating a new Date() object. If i print why does it shows Thu Jul 05 08:21:05 PKT 2012. How does it takes the timezone as PKT ?

can try out this link to http://stackoverflow.com/q/2891361/1465828 — Aprian, Jul 05 '12 at 03:40
According to other languages I know it should be UTC because at least in Python and Objective-C dates are stored with this default timezone. — Carsten, Jul 06 '12 at 06:40

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 06 '12 at 07:33

The date itself doesn't have any time zone. Its toString() method uses the current default time zone to return a String representing this date:

Date date = new Date();

System.out.println(TimeZone.getDefault());
System.out.println(date);

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

System.out.println(TimeZone.getDefault());
System.out.println(date);

Executing the above code on my machine leads to the following output:

sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="Europe/Paris",offset=3600000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,transitions=184,lastRule=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=Europe/Paris,offset=3600000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,startYear=0,startMode=2,startMonth=2,startDay=-1,startDayOfWeek=1,startTime=3600000,startTimeMode=2,endMode=2,endMonth=9,endDay=-1,endDayOfWeek=1,endTime=3600000,endTimeMode=2]]
Fri Jul 06 09:24:45 CEST 2012
sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="UTC",offset=0,dstSavings=0,useDaylight=false,transitions=0,lastRule=null]
Fri Jul 06 07:24:45 UTC 2012

In eclipse a java.lang.date shows a cdate.zoneInfo object. It might not be accessible from my pov a date has an associated timezone. This plays a vital role when converting to a different timezone. Without knowing the source timezone no conversion would be possible. Can you shed some light on the "has no timezone matter?" — Th 00 mÄ s, Apr 04 '13 at 07:56
@ThomasS "has no timezone matter" --> For one thing, the documentation says: …the Date class is intended to reflect coordinated universal time (UTC)… — Basil Bourque, Dec 30 '13 at 06:41

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '12 at 07:35

Well actually basic date times usually are time zone agnostic, they don't store time zones. To make use of time zone you use formatters, calendars and the like. Of course the basic date has to be in a default time zone, whatever it might be (usually GMT), otherwise you wouldn't be able to create a local date from the basic date instance.

In you particular case it would help to look into a) the javadocs and b) into the class itself, since JDK is usually distributed with source code of java.util.Date. According to javadoc the java.util.Date class represents number of milliseconds since the standard base time known as "the epoch", namely 1 January 1970, 00:00:00 GMT.

If it shows a different date when printed on your machine, it is because your system will print it using time zone default for your system. You can however print it yourself using any other time zone.

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 18 '14 at 06:50

If you are running under linux, there is some magic timezone file somewhere in the system. For my gentoo the magic was just creating a text file /etc/timezone with content

Europe/Berlin

The funny thing is that date gave the correct time and timezone (CEST) all the time, but java sent me to Greenwhich.

> date
Thu Sep 18 08:49:14 CEST 2014

What is the default timezone in java.util.Date

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