Java Current Date/Time displays 1 hour ahead that original time

Question

When I try to print the current date and time using Calender instance, the result I get is 1 hour ahead from the actual time.

I am working in remote machine which r

Answer 1

Avoid 3-Letter Time Zone

Never use the 3-letter time zone codes. They are neither standardized nor unique. Your "EST" can mean at least these:

• Eastern Standard Time (USA)
• Eastern Standard Time (Australia)
• Eastern Brazil Standard Time

Use time zone names.

Avoid j.u.Date/Calendar

You have discovered one of the many reasons to avoid using java.util.Date & java.util.Calendar classes bundled with Java: A Date instance has no time zone information yet its toString method confusingly renders a string based on your Java environment's default time zone.

Use Joda-Time

Use a competent date-time library. In Java that means either Joda-Time, or in Java 8, the new java.time.* classes (inspired by Joda-Time).

Example code…

// Default time zone
DateTime dateTime_MyDefaultTimeZone = new DateTime();

// Specific time zone. If by "EST" you meant east coast of United States, use a name such as New York.
DateTimeZone timeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/New_York" );
DateTime dateTime_EastCoastUS = new DateTime( timeZone );

Dump to console…

System.out.println( "dateTime_MyDefaultTimeZone: " + dateTime_MyDefaultTimeZone );
System.out.println( "dateTime_EastCoastUS: " + dateTime_EastCoastUS );
System.out.println( "date-time in UTC: " + dateTime_EastCoastUS.toDateTime( DateTimeZone.UTC ) );

When run…

dateTime_MyDefaultTimeZone: 2013-12-28T18:51:18.485-08:00
dateTime_EastCoastUS: 2013-12-28T21:51:18.522-05:00
date-time in UTC: 2013-12-29T02:51:18.522Z