In PostgreSQL, the localtime function returns the local time of the day, without the time zone offset.

If you need the time zone offset, use current_time() instead.

Syntax

You can use it in either of the following ways:

localtime
localtime(x)

Where x is an optional precision parameter, which causes the result to be rounded to x number of fractional digits in the seconds field.

Without a precision parameter (the first syntax), the result is given to the full available precision.

Example – Full Precision

Here’s a basic example to demonstrate a result using the full available precision.

SELECT localtime;

Result:

15:50:25.314626

Example – Specific Precision

Here’s an example to demonstrate how to specify the precision.

SELECT localtime(0);

Result:

15:50:44

In this example, I specified a precision of zero, which means that no fractional seconds were returned.

Here’s another example where I specify a number of fractional seconds.

SELECT localtime(3);

Result:

15:50:59.039

Transactions

The actual time is based on the start time of the current transaction. Therefore, it doesn’t change as the transaction progresses.

This allows a single transaction to have a consistent notion of the “current” time, so that multiple modifications within the same transaction bear the same time stamp.

Here’s an example that demonstrates this.

BEGIN;
SELECT localtime;
SELECT pg_sleep(5);
SELECT localtime;
SELECT pg_sleep(5);
SELECT localtime;
COMMIT;

Here’s the full output of my terminal when executing that transaction in psql:

postgres=# BEGIN;
BEGIN
postgres=# SELECT localtime;
    localtime    
-----------------
 09:22:40.096909
(1 row)


postgres=# SELECT pg_sleep(5);
 pg_sleep 
----------
 
(1 row)


postgres=# SELECT localtime;
    localtime    
-----------------
 09:22:40.096909
(1 row)


postgres=# SELECT pg_sleep(5);
 pg_sleep 
----------
 
(1 row)


postgres=# SELECT localtime;
    localtime    
-----------------
 09:22:40.096909
(1 row)


postgres=# COMMIT;
COMMIT

All three time values are identical, even though the pg_sleep() function was used to delay execution between each statement within the transaction.

This is in contrast to statement_timestamp() which does change with each statement.

Multiple Calls within a Statement

It also doesn’t change as the statement progresses.

\x
SELECT 
  localtime,
  pg_sleep(5),
  localtime,
  pg_sleep(5),
  localtime;

Result (using vertical output):

localtime | 09:23:45.108559
pg_sleep  | 
localtime | 09:23:45.108559
pg_sleep  | 
localtime | 09:23:45.108559

All three time values are identical, even though the pg_sleep() function was used to delay execution between each call to localtime.

This is in contrast to the clock_timestamp() function, which does change as it progresses through the statement.

By the way, I used vertical output (also known as expanded output) to make the results slightly more compact.

You can toggle expanded output in psql using \x.