1. Description
2. Nested Class Summary
3. Enum Constant Summary
4. Method Summary
   1. Methods declared in class Enum
   2. Methods declared in class Object
   3. Methods declared in interface TemporalUnit
5. Enum Constant Details
   1. NANOS
   2. MICROS
   3. MILLIS
   4. SECONDS
   5. MINUTES
   6. HOURS
   7. HALF_DAYS
   8. DAYS
   9. WEEKS
   10. MONTHS
   11. YEARS
   12. DECADES
   13. CENTURIES
   14. MILLENNIA
   15. ERAS
   16. FOREVER
6. Method Details
   1. values()
   2. valueOf(String)
   3. getDuration()
   4. isDurationEstimated()
   5. isDateBased()
   6. isTimeBased()
   7. addTo(R, long)
   8. between(Temporal, Temporal)
   9. toString()

• Nested Class Summary

  Nested classes/interfaces declared in class Enum

  Enum.EnumDesc<E>

  Modifier and Type

  Class

  Description

  static final class 

  Enum.EnumDesc<E extends Enum<E>>

  A nominal descriptor for an enum constant.

• Enum Constant Summary

  Enum Constants
  Enum Constant

  Description

  CENTURIES

  Unit that represents the concept of a century.

  DAYS

  Unit that represents the concept of a day.

  DECADES

  Unit that represents the concept of a decade.

  ERAS

  Unit that represents the concept of an era.

  FOREVER

  Artificial unit that represents the concept of forever.

  HALF_DAYS

  Unit that represents the concept of half a day, as used in AM/PM.

  HOURS

  Unit that represents the concept of an hour.

  MICROS

  Unit that represents the concept of a microsecond.

  MILLENNIA

  Unit that represents the concept of a millennium.

  MILLIS

  Unit that represents the concept of a millisecond.

  MINUTES

  Unit that represents the concept of a minute.

  MONTHS

  Unit that represents the concept of a month.

  NANOS

  Unit that represents the concept of a nanosecond, the smallest supported unit of time.

  SECONDS

  Unit that represents the concept of a second.

  WEEKS

  Unit that represents the concept of a week.

  YEARS

  Unit that represents the concept of a year.

• Method Summary

  All MethodsStatic MethodsInstance MethodsConcrete Methods

  Modifier and Type

  Method

  Description

  <R extends Temporal>
  R

  addTo(R temporal, long amount)

  Returns a copy of the specified temporal object with the specified period added.

  long

  between(Temporal temporal1Inclusive, Temporal temporal2Exclusive)

  Calculates the amount of time between two temporal objects.

  Duration

  getDuration()

  Gets the estimated duration of this unit in the ISO calendar system.

  boolean

  isDateBased()

  Checks if this unit is a date unit.

  boolean

  isDurationEstimated()

  Checks if the duration of the unit is an estimate.

  boolean

  isTimeBased()

  Checks if this unit is a time unit.

  String

  toString()

  Returns the name of this enum constant, as contained in the declaration.

  static ChronoUnit

  valueOf(String name)

  Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name.

  static ChronoUnit[]

  values()

  Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

  Methods declared in class Enum

  clone, compareTo, describeConstable, equals, finalize, getDeclaringClass, hashCode, name, ordinal, toString, valueOf

  Modifier and Type

  Method

  Description

  protected final Object

  clone()

  Throws CloneNotSupportedException.

  final int

  compareTo(ChronoUnit o)

  Compares this enum with the specified object for order.

  final Optional<Enum.EnumDesc<ChronoUnit>>

  describeConstable()

  Returns an enum descriptor EnumDesc for this instance, if one can be constructed, or an empty Optional if one cannot be.

  final boolean

  equals(Object other)

  Returns true if the specified object is equal to this enum constant.

  protected final void

  finalize()

  Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.

  Finalization has been deprecated for removal.

  final Class<ChronoUnit>

  getDeclaringClass()

  Returns the Class object corresponding to this enum constant's enum type.

  final int

  hashCode()

  Returns a hash code for this enum constant.

  final String

  name()

  Returns the name of this enum constant, exactly as declared in its enum declaration.

  final int

  ordinal()

  Returns the ordinal of this enumeration constant (its position in its enum declaration, where the initial constant is assigned an ordinal of zero).

  String

  toString()

  Returns the name of this enum constant, as contained in the declaration.

  static <T extends Enum<T>>
  T

  valueOf(Class<T> enumClass, String name)

  Returns the enum constant of the specified enum class with the specified name.

  Methods declared in class Object

  getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

  Modifier and Type

  Method

  Description

  final Class<?>

  getClass()

  Returns the runtime class of this Object.

  final void

  notify()

  Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor.

  final void

  notifyAll()

  Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor.

  final void

  wait()

  Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted.

  final void

  wait(long timeoutMillis)

  Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted, or until a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

  final void

  wait(long timeoutMillis, int nanos)

  Causes the current thread to wait until it is awakened, typically by being notified or interrupted, or until a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

  Methods declared in interface TemporalUnit

  isSupportedBy

  Modifier and Type

  Method

  Description

  default boolean

  isSupportedBy(Temporal temporal)

  Checks if this unit is supported by the specified temporal object.

• Enum Constant Details

  • NANOS

    public static final ChronoUnit NANOS

    Unit that represents the concept of a nanosecond, the smallest supported unit of time. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to the 1,000,000,000th part of the second unit.

  • MICROS

    public static final ChronoUnit MICROS

    Unit that represents the concept of a microsecond. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to the 1,000,000th part of the second unit.

  • MILLIS

    public static final ChronoUnit MILLIS

    Unit that represents the concept of a millisecond. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to the 1000th part of the second unit.

  • SECONDS

    public static final ChronoUnit SECONDS

    Unit that represents the concept of a second. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to the second in the SI system of units, except around a leap-second.

  • MINUTES

    public static final ChronoUnit MINUTES

    Unit that represents the concept of a minute. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 60 seconds.

  • HOURS

    public static final ChronoUnit HOURS

    Unit that represents the concept of an hour. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 60 minutes.

  • HALF_DAYS

    public static final ChronoUnit HALF_DAYS

    Unit that represents the concept of half a day, as used in AM/PM. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 12 hours.

  • DAYS

    public static final ChronoUnit DAYS

    Unit that represents the concept of a day. For the ISO calendar system, it is the standard day from midnight to midnight. The estimated duration of a day is 24 Hours.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to the day defined by the rising and setting of the Sun on Earth. It is not required that days begin at midnight - when converting between calendar systems, the date should be equivalent at midday.

  • WEEKS

    public static final ChronoUnit WEEKS

    Unit that represents the concept of a week. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 7 days.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days.

  • MONTHS

    public static final ChronoUnit MONTHS

    Unit that represents the concept of a month. For the ISO calendar system, the length of the month varies by month-of-year. The estimated duration of a month is one twelfth of 365.2425 Days.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days.

  • YEARS

    public static final ChronoUnit YEARS

    Unit that represents the concept of a year. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 12 months. The estimated duration of a year is 365.2425 Days.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days or months roughly equal to a year defined by the passage of the Earth around the Sun.

  • DECADES

    public static final ChronoUnit DECADES

    Unit that represents the concept of a decade. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 10 years.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days and is normally an integral number of years.

  • CENTURIES

    public static final ChronoUnit CENTURIES

    Unit that represents the concept of a century. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 100 years.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days and is normally an integral number of years.

  • MILLENNIA

    public static final ChronoUnit MILLENNIA

    Unit that represents the concept of a millennium. For the ISO calendar system, it is equal to 1000 years.

    When used with other calendar systems it must correspond to an integral number of days and is normally an integral number of years.

  • ERAS

    public static final ChronoUnit ERAS

    Unit that represents the concept of an era. The ISO calendar system doesn't have eras thus it is impossible to add an era to a date or date-time. The estimated duration of the era is artificially defined as 1,000,000,000 Years.

    When used with other calendar systems there are no restrictions on the unit.

  • FOREVER

    public static final ChronoUnit FOREVER

    Artificial unit that represents the concept of forever. This is primarily used with TemporalField to represent unbounded fields such as the year or era. The estimated duration of this unit is artificially defined as Duration.MAX.

• Method Details

  • values

    public static ChronoUnit[] values()

    Returns an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared.

    Returns: an array containing the constants of this enum class, in the order they are declared

  • valueOf

    public static ChronoUnit valueOf(String name)

    Returns the enum constant of this class with the specified name. The string must match exactly an identifier used to declare an enum constant in this class. (Extraneous whitespace characters are not permitted.)

    Parameters: name - the name of the enum constant to be returned. Returns: the enum constant with the specified name Throws: IllegalArgumentException - if this enum class has no constant with the specified name NullPointerException - if the argument is null

  • getDuration

    public Duration getDuration()

    Gets the estimated duration of this unit in the ISO calendar system.

    All of the units in this class have an estimated duration. Days vary due to daylight saving time, while months have different lengths.

    Specified by: getDuration in interface TemporalUnit Returns: the estimated duration of this unit, not null

  • isDurationEstimated

    public boolean isDurationEstimated()

    Checks if the duration of the unit is an estimate.

    All time units in this class are considered to be accurate, while all date units in this class are considered to be estimated.

    This definition ignores leap seconds, but considers that Days vary due to daylight saving time and months have different lengths.

    Specified by: isDurationEstimated in interface TemporalUnit Returns: true if the duration is estimated, false if accurate

  • isDateBased

    public boolean isDateBased()

    Checks if this unit is a date unit.

    All units from days to eras inclusive are date-based. Time-based units and FOREVER return false.

    Specified by: isDateBased in interface TemporalUnit Returns: true if a date unit, false if a time unit

  • isTimeBased

    public boolean isTimeBased()

    Checks if this unit is a time unit.

    All units from nanos to half-days inclusive are time-based. Date-based units and FOREVER return false.

    Specified by: isTimeBased in interface TemporalUnit Returns: true if a time unit, false if a date unit

  • addTo

    public <R extends Temporal> R addTo(R temporal, long amount)

    Description copied from interface: TemporalUnit

    Returns a copy of the specified temporal object with the specified period added.

    The period added is a multiple of this unit. For example, this method could be used to add "3 days" to a date by calling this method on the instance representing "days", passing the date and the period "3". The period to be added may be negative, which is equivalent to subtraction.

    There are two equivalent ways of using this method. The first is to invoke this method directly. The second is to use Temporal.plus(long, TemporalUnit): // these two lines are equivalent, but the second approach is recommended temporal = thisUnit.addTo(temporal); temporal = temporal.plus(thisUnit); It is recommended to use the second approach, plus(TemporalUnit), as it is a lot clearer to read in code.

    Implementations should perform any queries or calculations using the units available in ChronoUnit or the fields available in ChronoField. If the unit is not supported an UnsupportedTemporalTypeException must be thrown.

    Implementations must not alter the specified temporal object. Instead, an adjusted copy of the original must be returned. This provides equivalent, safe behavior for immutable and mutable implementations.

    Specified by: addTo in interface TemporalUnit Type Parameters: R - the type of the Temporal object Parameters: temporal - the temporal object to adjust, not null amount - the amount of this unit to add, positive or negative Returns: the adjusted temporal object, not null

  • between

    public long between(Temporal temporal1Inclusive, Temporal temporal2Exclusive)

    Description copied from interface: TemporalUnit

    Calculates the amount of time between two temporal objects.

    This calculates the amount in terms of this unit. The start and end points are supplied as temporal objects and must be of compatible types. The implementation will convert the second type to be an instance of the first type before the calculating the amount. The result will be negative if the end is before the start. For example, the amount in hours between two temporal objects can be calculated using HOURS.between(startTime, endTime).

    The calculation returns a whole number, representing the number of complete units between the two temporals. If there are smaller unit fields, their values are considered when determining the final whole number. For example, the amount in hours between the times 11:30 and 13:29 will only be one hour as it is one minute short of two hours, or the amount in months between the dates 2024-09-29 and 2025-02-28 (the last day in February) will be 4 months as it is one day short of 5 months.

    There are two equivalent ways of using this method. The first is to invoke this method directly. The second is to use Temporal.until(Temporal, TemporalUnit): // these two lines are equivalent between = thisUnit.between(start, end); between = start.until(end, thisUnit); The choice should be made based on which makes the code more readable.

    For example, this method allows the number of days between two dates to be calculated: long daysBetween = DAYS.between(start, end); // or alternatively long daysBetween = start.until(end, DAYS);

    Implementations should perform any queries or calculations using the units available in ChronoUnit or the fields available in ChronoField. If the unit is not supported an UnsupportedTemporalTypeException must be thrown. Implementations must not alter the specified temporal objects.

    Specified by: between in interface TemporalUnit Parameters: temporal1Inclusive - the base temporal object, not null temporal2Exclusive - the other temporal object, exclusive, not null Returns: the amount of time between temporal1Inclusive and temporal2Exclusive in terms of this unit; positive if temporal2Exclusive is later than temporal1Inclusive, negative if earlier

  • toString

    public String toString()

    Description copied from class: Enum

    Returns the name of this enum constant, as contained in the declaration. This method may be overridden, though it typically isn't necessary or desirable. An enum class should override this method when a more "programmer-friendly" string form exists.

    Specified by: toString in interface TemporalUnit Overrides: toString in class Enum<ChronoUnit> Returns: the name of this enum constant

Report a bug or suggest an enhancement
For further API reference and developer documentation see the Java SE Documentation, which contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples. Other versions.
Java is a trademark or registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates in the US and other countries.
Copyright © 1993, 2026, Oracle and/or its affiliates, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA.
All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms and the documentation redistribution policy.