Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC")) is not returning UTC time

I am really confused with the result I am getting with Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC")) method call, it's returning IST time.

Here is the code I used

Calendar cal_Two = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime());

and the response I got is:

Sat Jan 25 15:44:18 IST 2014

So I tried changing the default TimeZone to UTC and then I checked, then it is working fine

Calendar cal_Two = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime());

TimeZone tz  = TimeZone.getDefault() ;
TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
Calendar cal_Three = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(cal_Three.getTime());
TimeZone.setDefault(tz);
	

Result:

Sat Jan 25 16:09:11 IST 2014
Sat Jan 25 10:39:11 UTC 2014

Am I missing something here?

The System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime()) invocation returns a Date from getTime(). It is the Date which is getting converted to a string for println, and that conversion will use the default IST timezone in your case.

You'll need to explicitly use DateFormat.setTimeZone() to print the Date in the desired timezone.

EDIT: Courtesy of @Laurynas, consider this:

TimeZone timeZone = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(timeZone);
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = 
       new SimpleDateFormat("EE MMM dd HH:mm:ss zzz yyyy", Locale.US);
simpleDateFormat.setTimeZone(timeZone);

System.out.println("Time zone: " + timeZone.getID());
System.out.println("default time zone: " + TimeZone.getDefault().getID());
System.out.println();

System.out.println("UTC:     " + simpleDateFormat.format(calendar.getTime()));
System.out.println("Default: " + calendar.getTime());

java.util.Date is independent of the timezone. When you print cal_Two though the Calendar instance has got its timezone set to UTC, cal_Two.getTime() would return a Date instance which does not have a timezone (and is always in the default timezone)

Calendar cal_Two = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime());
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTimeZone());

Output:

 Sat Jan 25 16:40:28 IST 2014
    sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="UTC",offset=0,dstSavings=0,useDaylight=false,transitions=0,lastRule=null] 

From the javadoc of TimeZone.setDefault()

> Sets the TimeZone that is returned by the getDefault method. If zone > is null, reset the default to the value it had originally when the VM > first started.

Hence, moving your setDefault() before cal_Two is instantiated you would get the correct result.

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
Calendar cal_Two = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime());

Calendar cal_Three = Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println(cal_Three.getTime());

Output:

Sat Jan 25 11:15:29 UTC 2014
Sat Jan 25 11:15:29 UTC 2014

You are definitely missing a small thing and that is you are not setting a default value:

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));

So the code would look like:

TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
Calendar cal_Two = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println(cal_Two.getTime());

Explanation: If you want to change the time zone, set the default time zone using TimeZone.setDefault()

Calendar currentTime = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
currentTime.set(Calendar.ZONE_OFFSET, TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC").getRawOffset());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, currentTime.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY));
calendar.getTimeInMillis()

is working for me

> Following code is the simple example to change the timezone

public static void main(String[] args) {
          //get time zone
          TimeZone timeZone1 = TimeZone.getTimeZone("Asia/Colombo");
          Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar();
          //setting required timeZone
          calendar.setTimeZone(timeZone1);
          System.out.println("Time :" + calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY)+":"+calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE)+":"+calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND));
          
       }

> if you want see the list of timezones, here is the follwing code

public static void main(String[] args) {

	String[] ids = TimeZone.getAvailableIDs();
	for (String id : ids) {
		System.out.println(displayTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone(id)));
	}

	System.out.println("\nTotal TimeZone ID " + ids.length);

}

private static String displayTimeZone(TimeZone tz) {

	long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(tz.getRawOffset());
	long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(tz.getRawOffset())
                              - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMinutes(hours);
	// avoid -4:-30 issue
	minutes = Math.abs(minutes);

	String result = "";
	if (hours > 0) {
		result = String.format("(GMT+%d:%02d) %s", hours, minutes, tz.getID());
	} else {
		result = String.format("(GMT%d:%02d) %s", hours, minutes, tz.getID());
	}

	return result;

}

It is working for me.

Get in Timestamp type:

public static Timestamp getCurrentTimestamp() {
	TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
	final Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
	Date date = cal.getTime();
	Timestamp ts = new Timestamp(date.getTime());
	return ts;
}

Get in String type:

	public static String getCurrentTimestamp() {
	TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
	final Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
	Date date = cal.getTime();
	Timestamp ts = new Timestamp(date.getTime());
	return ts.toString();
}

Try to use GMT instead of UTC. They refer to the same time zone, yet the name GMT is more common and might work.