Question

For example: I have to use the date class in my project, but i need for example easy methods to add minutes to a Date etc. Should I:

Make a static class with methods like public static Date addToDate(Date date, int timeToAdd)

Make a class MyDate that extends Date and provide methods like public Date add(int duration)

As i was looking into this issue i got interested into what the better approach might be in general, especially concerning classes from the standard library.

Answer 1

I would go for the first approach. One of the things I hate of some OOP degenerations, is that sometimes useless classes proliferate – often it’s a perfectionist whim that brings to an escalation of bizarre classes where there are two methods and nothing really significant, and this brings to a bunch of useless code.

Just make a DateUtils class, and always check the Java Runtime doesn’t already provide something similar.