Date compare is wrong

Question

I have the following Java code working on Netbeans. However I have two issues left to figure out.

1) The output for dates between is always 1.

2) I can't get the format for the date to show the day of the week

notes: I can't use Joda Time and I am aware that using scripts has been bad for 10+ years. I am not concerned with daylight savings or leap year. I have researched the subject for days and understand how many times this subject has been brought up.

Here is what I have so far. Any help is appreciated.

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, MMM dd     yyyy");

            String date1 =request.getParameter("firstdate");

            String date2 =request.getParameter("seconddate");

            int answer = date2.compareTo(date1);

        out.println(date1);

        out.println(date2);

        out.println(" " + answer + " days");

I have tried using:

Days days = Days.daysBetween(new DateTime(date1), new DateTime(date2));
int daysBetweenDates = days.getDays();

and also

Period period = new Period(date1, date2);

I am out of ideas and am thinking that something is messed up with what I have done or included(not included). Any help is much appreciated.

UPDATE WITH FIX

In the end the issue I was having was that the date selected by a user was being stored as a string. I just changed it to the following and everything fell in place:

 <%

    String date1 =request.getParameter("firstdate");

    String date2 =request.getParameter("seconddate");

        SimpleDateFormat dateformat = new SimpleDateFormat ("E yyyy.MM.dd"); //SDF to display output with day of week

    // This piece here made everything work fine
    Date displaydate1=new Date(date1); 

    Date displaydate2=new Date(date2);

    int differenceInDays = (int) ((displaydate2.getTime() - displaydate1.getTime())/(1000*60*60*24));//common method to calculate number of days

out.println("Between " +dateformat.format(displaydate1)+ " and " +dateformat.format(displaydate2)+ " there are " +differenceInDays+ " days");

 %>

I am trying to get how many days are between the entered dates. Thank you for letting me know that. Looks like I am way off still. :) — Luis Ramos, Aug 30 '15 at 01:27
See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20165564/calculating-days-between-two-dates-with-in-java — Jayan, Aug 30 '15 at 01:30
I have fixed it. Everything is as it should be. Thank you for the help — Luis Ramos, Aug 30 '15 at 05:19
You may answer your question with details of the fix.. or delete it. There is nothing for a future-visitor here — Jayan, Aug 30 '15 at 05:34
Thanks for pointing that out, I was unaware. Updates post and answered my own question. — Luis Ramos, Aug 31 '15 at 10:13

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 31 '15 at 10:12

I found out the issue was that my date was of the String type not Date. I tried many other peoples ideas for changing it but could not get any to work. In the end all I did was take the inputted date and run it back through as a Date type.... Sometimes the easiest solution is the hardest to figure out I guess but I got it and am happy to have learned so much from the research I had to do because of it. Here is the final completed section of code. I also edited my question with the fix:

     <%

    String date1 =request.getParameter("firstdate");

    String date2 =request.getParameter("seconddate");

        SimpleDateFormat dateformat = new SimpleDateFormat ("E yyyy.MM.dd"); //SDF to display output with day of week

    Date displaydate1=new Date(date1); //This fixed everything

    Date displaydate2=new Date(date2);

    int differenceInDays = (int) ((displaydate2.getTime() - displaydate1.getTime())/(1000*60*60*24));//common method to calculate number of days

out.println("Between " +dateformat.format(displaydate1)+ " and " +dateformat.format(displaydate2)+ " there are " +differenceInDays+ " days");

 %>

Date compare is wrong

1 Answers1