Preferably as a long.
All the example I can find are getting the date/time as a string and not any scalar value. :)
+1
A:
System.currentTimeMillis returns a long.
http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/System.html#currentTimeMillis()
there is also System.nanoTime().
Peter Tillemans
2010-08-20 23:44:44
+5
A:
If you really want the current time as a long, try System.currentTimeMillis(). Alternatively, you can use new Date().getTime().
However, using the current time as a random number generator seed is a very poor choice (at least, if you are using the random numbers for anything important, such as cryptography). You may wish to consider using a random source such as /dev/urandom (if available on your platform).
Greg Hewgill
2010-08-20 23:44:46
Note also that the standard Java random number generator, java.util.Random, by default initializes to System.currentTimeMillis(), so if that's the generator you're using, no need to do that explicitly.
William Pietri
2010-08-20 23:50:05
Security is most definitely NOT important. It's justing ordering of some questions, which up until this point had be done by some constants. :P
bobber205
2010-08-20 23:50:10
Java has java.security.SecureRandom, so there is no need to use /dev/urandom directly. http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/security/SecureRandom.html
starblue
2010-08-21 07:53:58