PostgreSQL – CURRENT_TIME Function

The PostgreSQL CURRENT_TIME function returns the current time and the current time zone.

Syntax: CURRENT_TIME(precision)

Let’s analyze the above syntax:

• The precision argument is used to set the precision of the returned TIMESTAMP type value in fractional seconds precision. By default, the function returns a full available precision if no precision data is provided to the function.
• The CURRENT_TIME function returns a TIME WITH TIME ZONE value. This value is nothing but the current time with the current time zone.

Example 1:

The following statement can be used to get the current time:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME;

Output:

Example 2:

The following statement shows the process of using the CURRENT_TIME function with the precision of 2:

SELECT CURRENT_TIME(2);

Output:

Example 3:

The CURRENT_TIME function can also be used as the default value of the TIME columns. To demonstrate this, create a table named log:

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 value returned by the CURRENT_TIME function. Now insert some data to the demo table:

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

Now verify if the row was inserted into the log table with the created_at column added correctly by using the following query:

SELECT * FROM log;

Output:

Alternative:

We can get similar output by using by Postgresql NOW function.

Syntax: NOW();

This will return the current date and time in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MI: SS.MS+TZ. 

Example 1:

The following statement can be used to get the current time:

SELECT NOW();

Output: