Question

How to calculate the difference between two dates (java.util.Date)

Asked by: _Esam

How do I get the difference (int value) of two java.util.Date dates?

Like difference between 2007-05-31 and 2007-05-29 is 2.

Thanks.
_Esam

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Asked On
2007-05-31 at 09:33:51ID22605118
Tags

between

,

difference

,

dates

,

two

,

calculate

Topic

Java Standard Edition

Participating Experts
5
Points
50
Comments
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Answers

 

by: NHBFighterPosted on 2007-05-31 at 10:10:24ID: 19189862

Date start=....;
Date end=....;
long diffInMilleseconds = end.getTime() - start.getTime();
long diffInSeconds = diffInMilleseconds/1000;
long diffInMinutes = diffInSeconds/60;

 

by: _EsamPosted on 2007-05-31 at 10:18:10ID: 19189918

I need to find the difference between days ? How many days?

 

by: NHBFighterPosted on 2007-05-31 at 10:33:21ID: 19190018

Yeah I figured you could continue the logic on your own but here it is for you
Date start=....;
Date end=....;
long diffInMilleseconds = end.getTime() - start.getTime();
long diffInSeconds = diffInMilleseconds/1000;
long diffInMinutes = diffInSeconds/60;
long diffInHours = diffInMinutes/60;
long diffInDays = diffInHours/24;

 

by: _EsamPosted on 2007-05-31 at 10:34:21ID: 19190025

Is this the only way ... or is there any other utility methods, etc. in the Calender class?

 

by: VenabiliPosted on 2007-06-01 at 04:05:26ID: 19194131

Yep - you can. THe easiest way is getting the difference in milliseconds and making the days in the same way as above + some casting to int for example.
See this: http://www.exampledepot.com/egs/java.util/CompDates.html

Another way (IF both dates are in the same year - otherwise it becomes a bit complicated but still achievable) is to check which day is every date  in the year http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/util/Calendar.html#DAY_OF_YEAR

This is also a good article on dates and calculations with them in Java: http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-03-2001/jw-0330-time.html

 

by: ryanfernandesPosted on 2008-12-12 at 01:30:19ID: 23155999

The accepted solution has problems and will yield incorrect results in countries that have Day light savings (US, UK, Europe etc)

You  can check out the solution given here for the correct way of doing this:
http://tripoverit.blogspot.com/2007/07/java-calculate-difference-between-two.html

 

by: PLANET_LTDPosted on 2009-03-14 at 16:47:54ID: 23889139

If you want to use the dates in a different format like 01-01-2009 00:00:00.000 you can use timestamp function.

Date today = new Date();

Timestamp ts = new Timestamp( today.getTime() + 604800000 );

604800000 = this number is equals to 7 days in seconds...

 

by: tzxie2000Posted on 2009-06-01 at 17:21:43ID: 24523061

//The code is use for finding the difference between  days

//The code is use for finding the difference between  days
	
	
	public static int getDays(GregorianCalendar g1, GregorianCalendar g2) {
	      int elapsed = 0;
	      GregorianCalendar gc1, gc2;
 
	      if (g2.after(g1)) {
	         gc2 = (GregorianCalendar) g2.clone();
	         gc1 = (GregorianCalendar) g1.clone();
	      }
	      else   {
	         gc2 = (GregorianCalendar) g1.clone();
	         gc1 = (GregorianCalendar) g2.clone();
	      }
 
	      gc1.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
	      gc1.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
	      gc1.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
	      gc1.clear(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
 
	      gc2.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
	      gc2.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
	      gc2.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
	      gc2.clear(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
 
	      while ( gc1.before(gc2) ) {
	         gc1.add(Calendar.DATE, 1);
	         elapsed++;
	      }
	      return elapsed;
	   }

                                              
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