Comparing two dates using Joda time

Question

I want to compare two dates, however I'm running into trouble. 1 date is created from a java.util.date object and the other is manually crafted. The following code is an example:

Date ds = new Date();
DateTime d = new DateTime(ds);

DateTime e = new DateTime(2012,12,07, 0, 0);
System.out.println(d.isEqual(e));

However the test turns out false. I am guessing that it is because of the time. How can I check if these two dates are equal to each other (I mean the Year, month, date are identical)?

FYI, the [Joda-Time](http://www.joda.org/joda-time/) project is now in [maintenance mode](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance_mode), with the team advising migration to the [java.time](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/9/docs/api/java/time/package-summary.html) classes. See [Tutorial by Oracle](https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/datetime/TOC.html). — Basil Bourque, Oct 21 '17 at 19:22

score 55 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 07 '12 at 13:35

55

System.out.println(d.toDateMidnight().isEqual(e.toDateMidnight()));

or

System.out.println(d.withTimeAtStartOfDay().isEqual(e.withTimeAtStartOfDay()));

answered Dec 07 '12 at 13:35

JB Nizet

678,734
91
1,224
1,255

6

toDateMidnight() is deprecated and should not be used. Instead, withTimeAtStartOfDay() can be used, but it's still not optimal because it does not remove the timezone, so if the two dates have different timezones, they will never be equal. – Stan Feb 04 '14 at 13:10
4

I use `toLocalDate()`, which I presume has the same problem. To avoid that I guess you could chain `withZone()`, e.g.: `d.toLocalDate().isEqual(e.withZone(d.zone).toLocalDate())`. Note that this is _not_ tested. – Charles Wood Jul 17 '14 at 16:33
2

This won't work if d and e are different time zones. Charles Wood's answer above is more reliable – Manish Patel May 06 '15 at 19:56

score 23 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 04 '14 at 13:08

You should use toLocalDate():

date1.toLocalDate().isEqual(date2.toLocalDate())

This will get rid of the Time part of the DateTime.

There is another approach, but it does not account for the case where the two dates have a different timezone, so it's less reliable:

date1.withTimeAtStartOfDay().isEqual(date2.withTimeAtStartOfDay())

score 8 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

8

return DateTimeComparator.getDateOnlyInstance().compare(first, second);

Via How to compare two Dates without the time portion?

edited May 23 '17 at 11:54

Community

1
1

answered May 20 '15 at 19:32

Vadzim

24,954
11
143
151

Andrii Polunin · Answer 4 · 2012-12-07T17:34:39.077

3

If you want to ignore time components (i.e. you want to compare only dates) you can use DateMidnight class instead of Date Time. So your example will look something like this:

Date ds = new Date();
DateMidnight d = new DateMidnight(ds);

DateMidnight e = new DateMidnight(2012, 12, 7);
System.out.println(d.isEqual(e));

But beware, it will print "true" only today :)

Also note that by default JDK Date and all Joda-Time instant classes (DateTime and DateMidnight included) are constructed using default timezone. So if you create one date to compare in code, but retrieve another one from the DB which probably stores dates in UTC you may encounter inconsistencies assuming you are not in UTC time zone.

edited Dec 07 '12 at 17:34

answered Dec 07 '12 at 17:29

Andrii Polunin

1,306
11
15

DateMidnight in package time is deprecated suggestion is to use localDate – Andy Hayden Nov 04 '15 at 23:52
All the midnight-related classes and methods and methods are deprecated, supplanted by the "first moment of the day" concept and methods. – Basil Bourque Jan 07 '18 at 19:17

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Dec 07 '12 at 13:34

1

As they're DateTime objects, their time parts are also taken into consideration when you're comparing them. Try setting the time parts of the first date to 0, like:

d = d.withTime(0, 0, 0, 0);

answered Dec 07 '12 at 13:34

Hiery Nomus

17,429
2
41
37

Ismail H · Answer 6 · 2018-08-13T12:30:02.480

1

I stumbled into this question while looking for a comparison with today. Here's how you can compare a date to today :

date1.toLocalDate().isBeforeNow() // works also with isAfterNow

edited Aug 13 '18 at 12:30

answered Aug 09 '18 at 15:09

Ismail H

4,226
2
38
61

The Question asked about equality, not before or after. What is `date1`? Not taken from the Question. – Basil Bourque Aug 09 '18 at 19:12

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 21 '17 at 10:39

0

This is a static method which works for me.

public static boolean isSameDay(DateTime date1, DateTime date2){
    return date1.withTimeAtStartOfDay().isEqual(date2.withTimeAtStartOfDay());
}

edited Oct 21 '17 at 10:39

Thomas Fritsch

9,639
33
37
49

answered Oct 21 '17 at 09:56

BaptisteM

147
1
12

I don't see the advantage of the [existing Answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/21553438/642706) using `toLocalDate`. Except this one fails if the `DateTime` objects have different time zones whereas the other Answer’s approach would not. Whether this is good or bad depends on the business problem. – Basil Bourque Oct 21 '17 at 19:19

score -1 · Answer 8 · answered Jan 07 '18 at 13:45

-1

DateTimeComparator.getDateOnlyInstance().compare(obj1, obj2);

obj1 and obj2 can be a String, Long, Date(java.util)... For the details see http://www.joda.org/joda-time/apidocs/index.html?org/joda/time/DateTimeComparator.html

answered Jan 07 '18 at 13:45

Evgeny Zinovyev

1
1

1

Welcome to Stack Overflow! Before answering a question, always read the existing answers. This answer has already been provided. Instead of repeating the answer, vote up the existing answer. Some guidelines for writing good answers can be found [here](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer). – dferenc Jan 07 '18 at 14:12

Alex555 · Answer 9 · 2012-12-07T14:01:13.640

-5

Write your own method

public boolean checkEqual(DateTime first,DateTime second){
     if(first.<getterforyear> == second.<getterforyear> && first.<getterformonth> == second.<getterformonth> && first.<getterforday> == second.<getterforday>){
         return true;
  }
 return false;
}

edited Dec 07 '12 at 14:01

answered Dec 07 '12 at 13:40

Alex555

55
1
8

The types are the same, read the question carefully. Both are DateTime. – Hiery Nomus Dec 07 '12 at 13:51
3

This is completely unnecessary as Joda Time has a number of utility methods that do exactly this sort of thing. – Charles Wood Jul 17 '14 at 16:35

Comparing two dates using Joda time

9 Answers9

Linked