.getTimeInMillis()

The .getTimeInMillis() method of the Calendar class returns the time represented by a Calendar object in the form of milliseconds.

Syntax

calendar.getTimeInMillis()

Returns the time represented by this Calendar object in milliseconds as a long.

Example

This example code creates a Calendar object, records the current time, sets a new time, and then prints the difference.

import java.util.Calendar;

// CalendarGetTimeInMillisExample.java
public class CalendarGetTimeInMillisExample {
  public static void main(String[] args) {

    // Create a Calendar instance
    Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();

    // Get the current time in milliseconds
    long currentTime = calendar.getTimeInMillis();

    // Sets the time back to 12:00 AM today
    calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    calendar.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);

    // Get the time in milliseconds of 12:00 AM today
    long earlierToday = calendar.getTimeInMillis();

    // Prints current amount of milliseconds that have passed today
    System.out.println("Time passed today so far in milliseconds: " + (currentTime - earlierToday));
  }
}

The output should be similar to:

Time passed today so far in milliseconds: 77753075