Convert Date/Time for given Timezone - java

For me, the simplest way to do that is:

Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(new Date());
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");

//Here you say to java the initial timezone. This is the secret
sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
//Will print in UTC
System.out.println(sdf.format(calendar.getTime()));    

//Here you set to your timezone
sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getDefault());
//Will print on your default Timezone
System.out.println(sdf.format(calendar.getTime()));

Understanding how computer time works is very important. With that said I agree that if an API is created to help you process computer time like real time then it should work in such a way that allows you to treat it like real time. For the most part this is the case but there are some major oversights which do need attention.

Anyway I digress!! If you have your UTC offset (better to work in UTC than GMT offsets) you can calculate the time in milliseconds and add that to your timestamp. Note that an SQL Timestamp may vary from a Java timestamp as the way the elapse from the epoch is calculated is not always the same - dependant on database technologies and also operating systems.

I would advise you to use System.currentTimeMillis() as your time stamps as these can be processed more consistently in java without worrying about converting SQL Timestamps to java Date objects etc.

To calculate your offset you can try something like this:

Long gmtTime =1317951113613L; // 2.32pm NZDT
Long timezoneAlteredTime = 0L;

if (offset != 0L) {
    int multiplier = (offset*60)*(60*1000);
    timezoneAlteredTime = gmtTime + multiplier;
} else {
    timezoneAlteredTime = gmtTime;
}

Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar();
calendar.setTimeInMillis(timezoneAlteredTime);

DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss z");

formatter.setCalendar(calendar);
formatter.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(timeZone));

String newZealandTime = formatter.format(calendar.getTime());

I hope this is helpful!