Date and time

Exposed provides comprehensive support for date and time operations through three additional modules. Each module is based on a different date-time library, offering different features and type support:

Module	Based on	Use
`exposed-kotlin-datetime`	`kotlinx-datetime` library	Modern Kotlin-first approach, recommended for new projects.
`exposed-java-time`	Java 8 Time API	Good choice when integrating with Java code or when you need Java 8 Time API compatibility.
`exposed-jodatime`	Joda-Time library	Legacy support, includes additional functions for extracting time parts (year, month, day, hour, minute, second). Consider using newer modules for new projects.

Basic usage

Here are examples of using date and time types. The imports will vary based on your chosen module:

        import org.jetbrains.exposed.v1.core.Table

        // For exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended)
        import org.jetbrains.exposed.v1.datetime.*

        // For exposed-java-time
        import org.jetbrains.exposed.v1.javatime.*

        // For exposed-jodatime
        import org.jetbrains.exposed.v1.jodatime.*

        object Events : Table() {
            val id = integer("id").autoIncrement()
            val name = varchar("name", 50)
            val startDate = date("start_date")                                    // maps to LocalDate
            val startTime = time("start_time")                                    // maps to LocalTime
            val createdAt = datetime("created_at")                               // maps to LocalDateTime
                .defaultExpression(CurrentDateTime)
            val updatedAt = timestamp("updated_at")                              // maps to Instant
            val scheduledAt = timestampWithTimeZone("scheduled_at")              // maps to OffsetDateTime

            override val primaryKey = PrimaryKey(id)
        }

Supported types

Each date-time module provides its own set of types. Below are the details for each supported type across all modules:

date(): Maps to database DATE. Used for storing date values without time component.
val birthDate = date("birth_date") // Using exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended) Events.insert { it[birthDate] = LocalDate(1990, 1, 1) } // Using exposed-java-time Events.insert { it[birthDate] = LocalDate.of(1990, 1, 1) } // Using exposed-jodatime Events.insert { it[birthDate] = org.joda.time.LocalDate(1990, 1, 1) }
datetime(): Maps to database DATETIME. Used for storing both date and time values.
val createdAt = datetime("created_at") .defaultExpression(CurrentDateTime) // Sets current date/time when inserting new records // Using exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended) Events.insert { it[createdAt] = Clock.System.now() .toLocalDateTime(TimeZone.UTC) } // Note: CurrentDateTime is available in all date-time modules // Using exposed-java-time Events.insert { it[createdAt] = LocalDateTime.now() } // Using exposed-jodatime Events.insert { it[createdAt] = DateTime.now() }
When using exposed-jodatime, you can extract time parts using these functions: year(), month(), day(), hour(), minute(), and second().
time(): Maps to database TIME. Used for storing time values without date component.
val startTime = time("start_time") // Using exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended) Events.insert { it[startTime] = LocalTime(9, 0) // 09:00 } // Using exposed-java-time Events.insert { it[startTime] = LocalTime.of(9, 0) // 09:00 } // Using exposed-jodatime Events.insert { it[startTime] = org.joda.time.LocalTime(9, 0) // 09:00 }
timestamp(): Maps to database TIMESTAMP. Used for storing both date and time values. Not supported by exposed-jodatime.
val lastModified = timestamp("last_modified") // Using exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended) Events.insert { it[lastModified] = Clock.System.now() } // Using exposed-java-time Events.insert { it[lastModified] = Instant.now() }
timestampWithTimeZone(): Maps to database TIMESTAMP WITH TIME ZONE. Used for storing both date and time values while preserving timezone information. Not supported by exposed-jodatime.
val scheduledAt = timestampWithTimeZone("scheduled_at") // Using exposed-kotlin-datetime (recommended) Events.insert { it[scheduledAt] = Clock.System.now().toOffsetDateTime(TimeZone.UTC) } // Using exposed-java-time Events.insert { it[scheduledAt] = OffsetDateTime.now(ZoneOffset.UTC) }
PostgreSQL and MySQL store timestamps in UTC, thereby losing the original timezone information. To preserve the original timezone in these databases, you need to store the timezone information in a separate column.

Last modified: 27 November 2025