Create a Date from a Unix Timestamp in Java
Create Date From Unix Timestamp in Java
A Unix timestamp is a number of seconds since January 1st, 1970. It can be used to keep track of when a certain event or action took place. In Java, you can use the java.util.Date
and java.util.Calendar
classes to convert a Unix timestamp into a date and time.
Convert Unix Timestamp to Date
The following example shows how to create a Date
object from a Unix timestamp:
long unixSeconds = 1583246800; // convert seconds to milliseconds Date date = new Date(unixSeconds*1000L); // format of the date SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z"); // give a timezone reference for formatting (see comment at the bottom) sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT-4")); String formattedDate = sdf.format(date); System.out.println(formattedDate); // 03/12/2020 10:00:00 EDT
Convert Unix Timestamp to Calendar
The following example shows how to create a Calendar
object from a Unix timestamp:
long unixSeconds = 1583246800; // convert seconds to milliseconds Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(); calendar.setTimeInMillis(unixSeconds*1000L); // format of the date SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss z"); // give a timezone reference for formatting (see comment at the bottom) sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT-4")); String formattedDate = sdf.format(calendar.getTime()); System.out.println(formattedDate); // 03/12/2020 10:00:00 EDT
The code above creates a Date object and a Calendar object from a Unix timestamp. The output is the same in both cases, so you can use either one depending on your needs.