getting the difference between date in days in java

Question

(This question already exists): question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3796841/getting-the-difference-between-date-in-days-in-java

Answer 1

Calendar start = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar end = Calendar.getInstance();
start.set(2010, 7, 23);
end.set(2010, 8, 26);
Date startDate = start.getTime();
Date endDate = end.getTime();
long startTime = startDate.getTime();
long endTime = endDate.getTime();
long diffTime = endTime - startTime;
long diffDays = diffTime / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
DateFormat dateFormat = DateFormat.getDateInstance();
System.out.println("The difference between "+
  dateFormat.format(startDate)+" and "+
  dateFormat.format(endDate)+" is "+
  diffDays+" days.");

This will not work when crossing daylight savings time (or leap seconds) as orange80 pointed out and might as well not give the expected results when using different times of day. Using JodaTime might be easier for correct results, as the only correct way with plain Java before 8 I know is to use Calendar's add and before/after methods to check and adjust the calculation:

start.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, (int)diffDays);
while (start.before(end)) {
    start.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
    diffDays++;
}
while (start.after(end)) {
    start.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, -1);
    diffDays--;
}