System.currentTimeMillis vs System.nanoTime

Question

Accuracy Vs. Precision

What I would like to know is whether I should use System.currentTimeMillis() or System.nanoTime()<

Answer 1

Since no one else has mentioned this…

It is not safe to compare the results of System.nanoTime() calls between different threads. Even if the events of the threads happen in a predictable order, the difference in nanoseconds can be positive or negative.

System.currentTimeMillis() is safe for use between threads.

Answer 2

Update by Arkadiy: I've observed more correct behavior of System.currentTimeMillis() on Windows 7 in Oracle Java 8. The time was returned with 1 millisecond precision. The source code in OpenJDK has not changed, so I do not know what causes the better behavior.

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David Holmes of Sun posted a blog article a couple years ago that has a very detailed look at the Java timing APIs (in particular System.currentTimeMillis() and System.nanoTime()), when you would want to use which, and how they work internally.

Inside the Hotspot VM: Clocks, Timers and Scheduling Events - Part I - Windows

One very interesting aspect of the timer used by Java on Windows for APIs that have a timed wait parameter is that the resolution of the timer can change depending on what other API calls may have been made - system wide (not just in the particular process). He shows an example where using Thread.sleep() will cause this resolution change.

Answer 3

I've had good experience with nanotime. It provides wall-clock time as two longs (seconds since the epoch and nanoseconds within that second), using a JNI library. It's available with the JNI part precompiled for both Windows and Linux.

Answer 4

Yes, if such precision is required use System.nanoTime(), but be aware that you are then requiring a Java 5+ JVM.

On my XP systems, I see system time reported to at least 100 microseconds 278 nanoseconds using the following code:

private void test() {
    System.out.println("currentTimeMillis: "+System.currentTimeMillis());
    System.out.println("nanoTime         : "+System.nanoTime());
    System.out.println();

    testNano(false);                                                            // to sync with currentTimeMillis() timer tick
    for(int xa=0; xa<10; xa++) {
        testNano(true);
        }
    }

private void testNano(boolean shw) {
    long strMS=System.currentTimeMillis();
    long strNS=System.nanoTime();
    long curMS;
    while((curMS=System.currentTimeMillis()) == strMS) {
        if(shw) { System.out.println("Nano: "+(System.nanoTime()-strNS)); }
        }
    if(shw) { System.out.println("Nano: "+(System.nanoTime()-strNS)+", Milli: "+(curMS-strMS)); }
    }