How to Compare Two Dates in Java
-
before()Method to Compare Two Dates in Java -
after()Method to Compare Two Dates in Java -
Use the
equals()Method to Compare Two Dates in Java -
compareTo()Method to Compare Two Dates in Java
In this tutorial, we will learn multiple methods to compare dates in Java. To achieve desirable results, we need methods i.e., before(), after(), equals() and compareTo().
before() Method to Compare Two Dates in Java
The first method is the before() method in Java Date class that performs the comparison of the Date object and the given Date instant. It returns true when the Date object comes earlier than the given Date object.
Example Codes:
// java 1.8
package simpletesting;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class SimpleTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
Date date1 = dateFormat.parse("2019-09-16");
Date date2 = dateFormat.parse("2020-01-25");
System.out.println("Date-1: " + dateFormat.format(date1));
System.out.println("Date-2: " + dateFormat.format(date2));
if (date1.before(date2)) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is before Date-2");
}
} catch (ParseException ex) {
}
}
}
Output:
Date-1: 2019-09-16
Date-2: 2020-01-25
Date-1 is before Date-2
after() Method to Compare Two Dates in Java
Another approach to achieve this comparison is using the after() method in Java Date class. This method is opposite to the above before method and returns true when the Date object comes later than the given Date object.
Example Codes:
// java 1.8
package simpletesting;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class SimpleTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
SimpleDateFormat sdformat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
Date date1 = sdformat.parse("2020-01-25");
Date date2 = sdformat.parse("2019-09-16");
System.out.println("Date-1: " + sdformat.format(date1));
System.out.println("Date-2: " + sdformat.format(date2));
if (date1.after(date2)) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is after Date-2");
}
} catch (ParseException ex) {
}
}
}
Output:
Date-1: 2020-01-25
Date-2: 2019-09-16
Date-1 is after Date-2
Use the equals() Method to Compare Two Dates in Java
Another approach is to use the equals() method in Java Date class. It compares two dates and returns true if they are equal.
Example Codes:
// java 1.8
package simpletesting;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class SimpleTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
SimpleDateFormat sdformat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-dd-mm");
Date date1 = sdformat.parse("2020-01-25");
Date date2 = sdformat.parse("2020-01-25");
System.out.println("Date-1: " + sdformat.format(date1));
System.out.println("Date-2: " + sdformat.format(date2));
if (date1.equals(date2)) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is same as Date-2");
}
} catch (ParseException ex) {
}
}
}
Output:
Date-1: 2020-01-25
Date-2: 2020-01-25
Date-1 is same as Date-2
compareTo() Method to Compare Two Dates in Java
The last approach is compareTo() method in Java Date class. It compares two dates and returns different values based on the comparison result.
- It returns
0if the argument date is equal to aDateobject - It returns a positive value if a
Dateobject is after the argument date - It returns a negative if a
Dateobject is before the argument date
Example Codes:
// java 1.8
package simpletesting;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class SimpleTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
SimpleDateFormat sdformat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
Date date1 = sdformat.parse("2020-01-25");
Date date2 = sdformat.parse("2020-01-23");
System.out.println("Date-1: " + sdformat.format(date1));
System.out.println("Date-2: " + sdformat.format(date2));
if (date1.compareTo(date2) > 0) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is after Date-2");
} else if (date1.compareTo(date2) < 0) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is before Date-2");
} else if (date1.compareTo(date2) == 0) {
System.out.println("Date-1 is same as Date-2");
}
} catch (ParseException ex) {
}
}
}
Output:
Date-1: 2020-01-25
Date-2: 2020-01-23
Date-1 is after Date-2