How can I get my correct current local time?

Question

I need to get the current time but to be in type DateTime.

I use:

DateTime now = System.now();

but it returns wrong time.

I execute the code in 2017-08-04 00:38:46 AM

but it returns

00:38:46:023 USER_DEBUG [138]|DEBUG|now 2017-08-03 21:38:46

How can I get my correct current local time 2017-08-04 00:38:46?

I had even tried with:

DateTime now = DateTime.parse(System.Now().format());

but I still get wrong time.

01:10:09:021 USER_DEBUG [139]|DEBUG|now 2017-08-03 22:10:00

How can I get the correct current local time?

Answer 1

This code will get you the local time for the logged in user, by leveraging the timezone offset to subtract/add from GMT. It's even smart enough to account for Daylight Saving.

TimeZone tz = UserInfo.getTimeZone();
DateTime dt = Datetime.now();

system.debug('Actual Time as String ' + dt.format());
system.debug('Offset ' + tz.getOffset(dt)/1000);
system.debug('Formatted Time ' + dt.addSeconds((tz.getOffset(dt)/1000)));

If you want to always convert to a specific timezone (e.g.: EST) then substitute the first line for:

Timezone tz = Timezone.getTimeZone('America/New_York');

Answer 2

DateTime values are represented by an epoch time in GMT, and converted to the appropriate date/time when requested via the appropriate methods. System.debug, coincidentally, always displays GMT. Try this:

DateTime now = DateTime.now();
Integer hours = now.hour(), minutes = now.minute(), seconds = now.second();
System.debug(now);
System.debug(hours+':'+minutes+':'+seconds);

In my org, I ran it just a few seconds ago, and came up with the following values:

17:21:03.1 (1425986)|USER_DEBUG|[3]|DEBUG|2017-08-03 23:21:03

17:21:03.1 (1452095)|USER_DEBUG|[4]|DEBUG|17:21:3

As you can see, it's 21 minutes past 5 PM in my local time zone. System.debug shows the GMT value, and by calling hour(), minute(), and second(), I received the local time.

Per my original comment, whatever you think is going on isn't what's going on. DateTime values are always in GMT, and accommodate themselves for you as necessary. I recommend that you consider asking about whatever was originally stopping you before, because it's most likely a misunderstanding about how DateTime works.

If you need to adjust to another time zone, do feel free to use the TimeZone class, but be aware that using a time altered by addSeconds(tz.getOffset()/1000) may return incorrect results if you're querying the database, etc. The TimeZone class is typically used to convert a user's input from a local time zone into GMT, since the entire platform runs on GMT.

Answer 3

DateTime usually shows the time in GMT.

Format function retrieves the time based on user's timezone defined in Salesforce.

Let's say, this timezone is CST. So, format() or formatLong() (Converts the date to the local time zone and returns the converted date in long date format.) returns CST time.

System.debug('current time=' + System.Now().format());

Now if you are working at EST timezone. Salesforce never returns this EST time. You need to put a logic behind that.

Answer 4

I was trying to get the current Datetime in the local time zone, and found the following solution:

Datetime now = Datetime.now();
Integer offset = UserInfo.getTimezone().getOffset(now);
Datetime local = now.addSeconds(offset/1000);