Difference in days between two dates in Java?

Question

Hi All,

I've to find number of days between two dates: one, is from report and one, is current date. My snippet :

  int age=calculateDifference(agingDate, today);

Here, calculateDifference method is a private method, agingDate and today are Date objects, just for your clarification. I've followed two articles from Java Forum Thread1 and Thread 2. It works fine in a standalone program. When I include this into my logic to read from report, I'm getting unusual difference values.

Can anyone help me, why is it happening and how can I fix it?

EDIT :

I'm getting a lot greater than the actual difference of Days...

public static int calculateDifference(Date a, Date b)
{
    int tempDifference = 0;
    int difference = 0;
    Calendar earlier = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar later = Calendar.getInstance();

    if (a.compareTo(b) < 0)
    {
        earlier.setTime(a);
        later.setTime(b);
    }
    else
    {
        earlier.setTime(b);
        later.setTime(a);
    }

    while (earlier.get(Calendar.YEAR) != later.get(Calendar.YEAR))
    {
        tempDifference = 365 * (later.get(Calendar.YEAR) - earlier.get(Calendar.YEAR));
        difference += tempDifference;

        earlier.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, tempDifference);
    }

    if (earlier.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR) != later.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR))
    {
        tempDifference = later.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR) - earlier.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
        difference += tempDifference;

        earlier.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, tempDifference);
    }

    return difference;
}

Thanx in advance...

Note :

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the answer this way. I've accomplished this problem with the help of Joda-time library.

Answer 1

You know, it that doesn't work out for you you can always can some basic math with it. But you could also google your question to see many answers achieved in different ways.

Answer 2

You say it "works fine in a standalone program," but that you get "unusual difference values" when you "include this into my logic to read from report". That suggests that your report has some values for which it doesn't work correctly, and your standalone program doesn't have those values. Instead of a standalone program, I suggest a test case. Write a test case much as you would a standalone program, subclassing from JUnit's TestCase class. Now you can run a very specific example, knowing what value you expect (and don't give it today for the test value, because today changes over time). If you put in the values you used in the standalone program, your tests will probably pass. That's great - you want those cases to keep working. Now, add a value from your report, one that doesn't work right. Your new test will probably fail. Figure out why it's failing, fix it, and get to green (all tests passing). Run your report. See what's still broken; write a test; make it pass. Pretty soon you'll find your report is working.

Answer 3

I would suggest you use the excellent Joda Time library instead of the flawed java.util.Date and friends. You could simply write

import java.util.Date;
import org.joda.time.DateTime;
import org.joda.time.Days;

Date past = new Date(110, 5, 20); // June 20th, 2010
Date today = new Date(110, 6, 24); // July 24th 
int days = Days.daysBetween(new DateTime(past), new DateTime(today)).getDays(); // => 34

Answer 4

The simplest way is to use the JODA library: http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/faq.html#datediff

Answer 5

I might be too late to join the game but what the heck huh? :)

Do you think this is a threading issue? How are you using the output of this method for example? OR

Can we change your code to do something as simple as:

Calendar calendar1 = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar calendar2 = Calendar.getInstance();
    calendar1.set(<your earlier date>);
    calendar2.set(<your current date>);
    long milliseconds1 = calendar1.getTimeInMillis();
    long milliseconds2 = calendar2.getTimeInMillis();
    long diff = milliseconds2 - milliseconds1;
    long diffSeconds = diff / 1000;
    long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000);
    long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
    long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
    System.out.println("\nThe Date Different Example");
    System.out.println("Time in milliseconds: " + diff
 + " milliseconds.");
    System.out.println("Time in seconds: " + diffSeconds
 + " seconds.");
    System.out.println("Time in minutes: " + diffMinutes 
+ " minutes.");
    System.out.println("Time in hours: " + diffHours 
+ " hours.");
    System.out.println("Time in days: " + diffDays 
+ " days.");
  }

Answer 6

It depends on what you define as the difference. To compare two dates at midnight you can do.

long day1 = ...; // in milliseconds.
long day2 = ...; // in milliseconds.
long days = (day2 - day1) / 86400000;