tl;dr
Instant.now()
.atZone( ZoneId.of( "America/Toronto" ) )
No parsing! Do not parse to adjust time zone.
Avoid the troublesome old classes: java.text.SimpleDateFormat
, java.util.Date
, java.util.TimeZone
.
java.time
You are using troublesome old date-time classes, now legacy, supplanted by the java.time classes.
Instant
The Instant
class represents a moment on the timeline in UTC with a resolution of nanoseconds (up to nine (9) digits of a decimal fraction).
Instant instant = Instant.now();
2016-11-10T04:52:02.586Z
Time zone
You can adjust this Instant
into a time zone by applying a ZoneId
to get a ZonedDateTime
.
Do not parse as a way to adjust time zone! perhaps you are conflating a date-time object with a string that might represent its value. A date-time object can generate a string, and can parse a string, but the string is always distinct and separate from the date-time object.
Specify a proper time zone name in the format of continent/region
, such as America/Montreal
, Africa/Casablanca
, or Pacific/Auckland
. Never use the 3-4 letter abbreviation such as EST
or IST
as they are not true time zones, not standardized, and not even unique(!).
Furthermore, your Canada/Eastern
zone is actually just an alias for the real zone of America/Toronto
.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Toronto" );
ZonedDateTime zdt = instant.atZone( z );
2016-11-09T23:52:02.586-05:00[America/Toronto]
You could adjust into India time as well.
ZoneId zKolkata = ZoneId.of( "Asia/Kolkata" );
ZonedDateTime zdtKolkata = instant.atZone( zKolkata );
2016-11-10T10:22:02.586+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]
Dump to console.
System.out.println( "instant: " + instant );
System.out.println( "zdt: " + zdt );
System.out.println( "zdtKolkata: " + zdtKolkata );
instant: 2016-11-10T04:52:02.586Z
zdt: 2016-11-09T23:52:02.586-05:00[America/Toronto]
zdtKolkata: 2016-11-10T10:22:02.586+05:30[Asia/Kolkata]
See live code in IdeOne.com.
Database
By Timestamp
I assume you meant java.sql.Timestamp
. That class is now outmoded by the java.time classes, if you have a JDBC driver that complies with JDBC 4.2 or later. Just pass the Instant
object to PreparedStatement::setObject
. Fetch via ResultSet::getObject
.
myPreparedStatement.setObject( … , instant );
If your JDBC driver does not comply, fall back to converting to java.sql.Timestamp
. But minimize use of that class, only for talking to the database. Immediately convert back into java.time. Do not attempt business logic with Timestamp
.
java.sql.Timestamp ts = java.sql.Timestamp.from( instant );
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 java.time.
To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.
Where to obtain the java.time classes?
- Java SE 8 and SE 9 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 SE 7
- Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
- Android
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.