Question

I am trying to display current time per timezone like the following, but it doesn’t print out the time as expected.

long currentLong = System.currentTimeMillis();
TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("EST"));
System.out.println("EST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("CST"));
System.out.println("CST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("MST"));
System.out.println("MST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("PST"));
System.out.println("PST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("AST"));
System.out.println("AKST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("HST"));
System.out.println("HAST=="+ new java.util.Date(currentLong).toString());

When I execute the program I get this:

EST==Sat Nov 03 22:24:02 EST 2012
CST==Sat Nov 03 22:24:02 CDT 2012
MST==Sat Nov 03 20:24:02 MST 2012
PST==Sat Nov 03 20:24:02 PDT 2012
AKST==Sat Nov 03 19:24:02 AKDT 2012
HAST==Sat Nov 03 17:24:02 HST 2012

I am wondering why the time for CST is same as EST and MST and PST are same.

Can somebody tell me what the problem is?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Don’t use TimeZone.setDefault(), use Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone tz) and Calendar.setTimeZone(). Date is pretty Deprecated, Calendar is much better.