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Date/Time Intermediate

Instant with nanosecond precision

Get timestamps with microsecond or nanosecond precision.

Code Comparison
โœ• Java 8 
// Millisecond precision only
long millis =
    System.currentTimeMillis();
// 1708012345678
โœ“ Java 9+ 
// Microsecond/nanosecond precision
Instant now = Instant.now();
// 2025-02-15T20:12:25.678901234Z
long nanos = now.getNano();
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Why the modern way wins
๐ŸŽฏ

Higher precision

Microsecond/nanosecond vs millisecond timestamps.

๐Ÿ“

Type-safe

Instant carries its precision โ€” no ambiguous longs.

๐ŸŒ

UTC-based

Instant is always in UTC โ€” no timezone confusion.

Old Approach
Milliseconds
Modern Approach
Nanoseconds
Since JDK
9
Difficulty
Intermediate
JDK Support
Instant with nanosecond precision
Available

Widely available since JDK 9 (Sept 2017)

How it works

Java 9 improved the clock resolution so Instant.now() captures microsecond precision on most platforms (nanosecond on some). The old currentTimeMillis() only gives milliseconds.

Related Documentation
Instant โ†— Clock โ†—
Proof
View proof source โ†—
Related patterns
Date/Time Intermediate

HexFormat

Java 8
// Pad to 2 digits, uppercase
String hex = String.format(
    "%02X", byteValue);
// Parse hex string
int val = Integer.parseInt(
    "FF", 16);
Java 17+
var hex = HexFormat.of()
    .withUpperCase();
String s = hex.toHexDigits(
    byteValue);
byte[] bytes =
    hex.parseHex("48656C6C6F");
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JDK 17+ โ†’
Date/Time Beginner

java.time API basics

Pre-Java 8
// Mutable, confusing, zero-indexed months
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(2025, 0, 15); // January = 0!
Date date = cal.getTime();
// not thread-safe
Java 8+
LocalDate date = LocalDate.of(
    2025, Month.JANUARY, 15);
LocalTime time = LocalTime.of(14, 30);
Instant now = Instant.now();
// immutable, thread-safe
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JDK 8+ โ†’
Date/Time Beginner

Duration and Period

Pre-Java 8
// How many days between two dates?
long diff = date2.getTime()
    - date1.getTime();
long days = diff
    / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
// ignores DST, leap seconds
Java 8+
long days = ChronoUnit.DAYS
    .between(date1, date2);
Period period = Period.between(
    date1, date2);
Duration elapsed = Duration.between(
    time1, time2);
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JDK 8+ โ†’
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