How to compare dates in Java? [duplicate]

Answer 1

You can use Date.getTime() which:

Returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT represented by this Date object.

This means you can compare them just like numbers:

if (date1.getTime() <= date.getTime() && date.getTime() <= date2.getTime()) {
    /*
     * date is between date1 and date2 (both inclusive)
     */
}

/*
 * when date1 = 2015-01-01 and date2 = 2015-01-10 then
 * returns true for:
 * 2015-01-01
 * 2015-01-01 00:00:01
 * 2015-01-02
 * 2015-01-10
 * returns false for:
 * 2014-12-31 23:59:59
 * 2015-01-10 00:00:01
 * 
 * if one or both dates are exclusive then change <= to <
 */