Get date and time using TimeZone.

[Patil Niteen]

Hi Ranchers,

Can I get the perfect date and time at a perticular location with the help of TimeZone?

The code I am using is:

import java.util.*;

import java.util.*;

class GetDateByTimeZone {
    public static void main( String args[] ){
        // Create object of TimeZone class.
        TimeZone tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST");
		System.out.println(tz.getDisplayName());
		System.out.println(tz.getRawOffset());
		System.out.println(tz.getID());

		//get the date at this timezone.
	    Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar(tz);
		System.out.println("Date:"+cal.getTime());
  }
}

The output is:
Eastern Standard Time
-18000000
EST
Date:Sun Dec 26 13:34:51 IST 2010
Press any key to continue . . .

I am trying to get the date and time at the specified TimeZone (Eastern Standard Time) but I am getting the system date and time.
Am I making any mistake in the code? Please guide me.

Thanks and regards,
Nitin.

[Rene Larsen]

The Three-letter time zone IDs are deprecated, therefore you are better of by using the long zone id - eg. "America/Los_Angeles".

The TimeZone isn't been shown on a Date object, because it has no information on it - but it is stored on the Calendar object, therefore you need to use this information when you want to show the correct Date/Time by using SimpleDateFormat.

public static void main(String[] args) {
   Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("America/New_York"));

   SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyyy h:mm:ss a '-' zzzz");
   df.setTimeZone(cal.getTimeZone());
   System.out.println(df.format(cal.getTime()));
}