How to Get the Current Time in SQLite

Problem

You’d like to get the current time in an SQLite database.

Solution

We’ll use the function TIME() to get the current time.

SELECT TIME('now');

Here’s the result of the query:

10:56:12

Discussion

The SQLite function TIME() returns the current time as a text value. It uses the hh:mm:ss format, where hh is a 2-digit hour, mm is a 2-digit minute, and ss is a 2-digit second.

This function has only one argument: the text value 'now', which indicates that the current date and time should be returned. You can omit this argument, as it is the default. Here is the shorter version of this function:

SELECT TIME();