How to insert a SQLite record with a datetime set to 'now' in Android application?

Question

Say, we have a table created as:

create table notes (_id integer primary key autoincrement, created_date date)

To insert a record, I'd use

ContentValues initialValues = new ContentValues(); 
initialValues.put("date_created", "");
long rowId = mDb.insert(DATABASE_TABLE, null, initialValues);

But how to set the date_created column to now? To make it clear, the

initialValues.put("date_created", "datetime('now')");

Is not the right solution. It just sets the column to "datetime('now')" text.

Answer 1

You cannot use the datetime function using the Java wrapper "ContentValues". Either you can use :

• SQLiteDatabase.execSQL so you can enter a raw SQL query.

  mDb.execSQL("INSERT INTO "+DATABASE_TABLE+" VALUES (null, datetime()) ");
  

• Or the java date time capabilities :

  // set the format to sql date time
  SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"); 
  Date date = new Date();
  ContentValues initialValues = new ContentValues(); 
  initialValues.put("date_created", dateFormat.format(date));
  long rowId = mDb.insert(DATABASE_TABLE, null, initialValues);
  

Answer 2

In my code I use DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP as the type and constraint of the column.

In your case your table definition would be

create table notes (
  _id integer primary key autoincrement, 
  created_date date default CURRENT_DATE
)

Answer 3

Method 1

CURRENT_TIME – Inserts only time
CURRENT_DATE – Inserts only date
CURRENT_TIMESTAMP – Inserts both time and date

CREATE TABLE users(
    id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY,
    username TEXT,
    created_at DATETIME DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP
);

Method 2

db.execSQL("INSERT INTO users(username, created_at) 
            VALUES('ravitamada', 'datetime()'");

Method 3 Using java Date functions

private String getDateTime() {
        SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat(
                "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss", Locale.getDefault());
        Date date = new Date();
        return dateFormat.format(date);
}

ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
values.put('username', 'ravitamada');
values.put('created_at', getDateTime());
// insert the row
long id = db.insert('users', null, values);