How can i tell if one joda-time DateTime object is within 4 hours of another?

Question

What's the best way to tell if one joda time DateTime object is within 4 hours of another if I don't know which object is earlier than the other?

The Joda Time Duration object seems to do this job well if I know that object A comes before object B, but since Duration is signed it doesn't seem to do what I want if I don't know the order.

Seems like there would be an easy way to do this, but I haven't found it yet.

Answer 1

You can use the compareTo() method on the two DateTime objects to tell which one is earlier and then use Duration to see if they are within 4 hours.

Answer 2

Try the following:

if (Math.abs(new Duration(start, end).getStandardSeconds()) < 4 * 3600) {
  // blah blah blah
}

Answer 3

Just use the Hours class for this:

Hours h = Hours.hoursBetween(date1, date2); 
int hours = h.getHours();