Java Compare two times with custom start end time in a day

Question

I'm getting two times (in the format HH:mm aa) say 6:00 pm to 5:00 pm.I need some generic and shortest way to compare these two times.

For instance:-

Say I am comparing 4pm and 7pm, then I should be getting 4pm > 7pm, since my start time is 6pm and end time is 5pm

Please help.

Yes I did see the util.Date which has before and after however that applies to start and end time in a specific day. i.e. 12.00 am to 11:59 am — user3115056, Mar 04 '14 at 12:51
possible duplicate of [Calculate Difference between two times in Android](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14110621/calculate-difference-between-two-times-in-android) — Raedwald, Mar 05 '14 at 08:15

Engineer2021 · Answer 1 · 2014-03-04T13:04:56.603

1

         // Per the JavaDoc:
         // the value 0 if the argument Date is equal to this Date; a value 
         // less than 0 if this 
         // Date is before the Date argument; and a value greater
         // than 0 if this Date is after 
         // the Date argument.

         if (startDate.compareTo(endDate) < 0)
         {
            // before
         }
         else if (startDate.compareTo(endDate) == 0)
         {
            // same
         }
         else if (startDate.compareTo(endDate) > 0)
         {
            // after
         }
         else if (startDate.compareTo(firstDate) > 0 && startDate.compareTo(secondDate) < 0)
         {
            // between
         }

Insert your conditions as appropriate.

edited Mar 04 '14 at 13:04

answered Mar 04 '14 at 12:59

Engineer2021

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What will be the answer if I compare 4pm and 7pm I guess I will be getting 4PM < 7PM, which is not desired – user3115056 Mar 04 '14 at 13:02
@user3115056: See my edit.. You have to cover your conditions as appropriate. – Engineer2021 Mar 04 '14 at 13:04
Where is the endDate in the last condition? – user3115056 Mar 04 '14 at 13:06
@user3115056: I didn't use it because in this case you have three date objects. The intial and the other Date objects you are trying to compare. – Engineer2021 Mar 04 '14 at 13:07
Not the exact answer but kind off got a proper way of doing this. – user3115056 Mar 06 '14 at 07:34

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '14 at 07:49

The java.util.Date and .Calendar classes built into Java are notoriously troublesome. Instead use either the Joda-Time library or the new java.time package in Java 8 (inspired by Joda-Time, defined by JSR 310).

Joda-Time

Joda-Time has built-in support for the Java Comparator. And Joda-Time offers its own comparison methods: isBefore, isBeforeNow, isAfter, isAfterNow, isEqual.

Example Code

DateTimeZone timeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "Europe/Paris" );
DateTime now = new DateTime( timeZone );
DateTime yesterday = now.minusDays( 1 );
boolean isYesterdayBeforeNow = yesterday.isBefore( now ); // TRUE.

java.time

In the java.time package, a ZonedDateTime offers methods such as isBefore and isAfter.

+1 Note, Joda Time is not available for people using GWT and have to use the method I showed in my answer. — Engineer2021, Mar 06 '14 at 12:51

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 04 '14 at 12:51

0

Date has before and after methods and can be compared to each other.

so you could do something like this:

if(todayDate.after(historyDate) && todayDate.before(futureDate)) {
    // In between
}

answered Mar 04 '14 at 12:51

Salah

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I said there are 2 times within 6:pm to 5pm... Say I am comparing 4pm and 7pm, then I should be getting 4pm > 7pm, since my start time is 6pm and end time is 5pm. – user3115056 Mar 04 '14 at 12:52
you can override `compareTo()` method and adjust the `return` type to suit your need (specify 4 is greater than 6) – KNU Mar 04 '14 at 13:03

Java Compare two times with custom start end time in a day

3 Answers3

Joda-Time

Example Code

java.time