java.util.Date.Date() (JavaDocs for no-args constructor)
"Allocates a Date object and initializes it so that it represents
the time at which it was allocated, measured to the
*nearest* *millisecond*...."

( though if you do not want to deal with objects, see..
 java.lang.System.currentTimeMillis() )

Andrew T.

System.currentTimeMillis() or if you are using JDK 1.5
System.nanoTime()

-cheers,
Manish

You should realize that a java routine, depending on the runtime
environment, can have enormously different performance if it is run
several times in a long-running process, versus just running once.  Some
of the JRE's are pretty smart about this sort of thing.

And if you stick I/O code in to just print a time stamp, it's quite
likely that most of the time represented there will be due to the I/O
itself.

Profiling can give far more useful information than just a timestamp of
a particular run.  Consider using a Profiler.      JProbe has a freeware
version that does a fine job on local stuff.  There are lots of others;
some free, some with specialized applications, some commercial, most
with some sort of trial version.