PostgreSQL Tutorial: CURRENT_TIME Function

Summary: The PostgreSQL CURRENT_TIME function returns the current time with time zone.

Table of Contents

Syntax

The following illustrates the syntax of the CURRENT_TIME function:

CURRENT_TIME(precision)

Arguments

The CURRENT_TIME function accepts one optional argument:

1) precision

The precision argument specifies the returned fractional seconds precision. If you omit the precision argument, the result will include the full available precision.

Return value

The CURRENT_TIME function returns a TIME WITH TIME ZONE value that represents the current time with time zone.

Examples

The following example shows how to get the current time:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME;

The output is a TIME WITH TIME ZONE value as follows:

       timetz
--------------------
 19:25:24.805985-07
(1 row)

In this example, we didn’t specify the precision argument, therefore, the full precision available included in the result.

The following example illustrates how to use the CURRENT_TIME function with the precision set to 2:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME(2);

The result is:

     timetz
----------------
 19:26:43.01-07
(1 row)

The CURRENT_TIME function can be used as the default value of TIME columns.

Let’s see the following example.

First, create a table named log for the demo:

CREATE TABLE log (
    log_id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
    message VARCHAR(255) NOT NULL,
    created_at TIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIME,
    created_on DATE DEFAULT CURRENT_DATE
);

The log table has the created_at column whose default value is the result of the CURRENT_TIME function.

Second, insert a row into the log table:

INSERT INTO log( message )
VALUES('Testing the CURRENT_TIME function');

In the statement, we only specified a value for the message column, therefore, other columns got the default values.

Third, check whether the row was inserted into the log table with the created_at column populated correctly by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM log;

The following picture shows the result:

As you see, the created_at column was populated with the time of which the INSERT statement executed.

In this tutorial, you have learned how to use the PostgreSQL CURRENT_TIME function to get the current time.

See more

PostgreSQL Tutorial: Date Functions

PostgreSQL Documentation: Date/Time Functions and Operators