Question

I am trying to compare the userr entered date with today’s date and update the database accordingly. This is how i am doing..

Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    SimpleDateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy");
    today = df.format(c.getTime());
    //=================================================================== 
    try{
    ContentValues val1 = new ContentValues();
    val1.put(CPUser.Data.TASK_TYPE, "Todays Task");
    getContentResolver().update(CPUser.Data.CONTENT_URI, val1, CPUser.Data.TASK_DUE_DATE + "=" +"'"+today+"'",null);

    ContentValues val2 = new ContentValues();
    val2.put(CPUser.Data.TASK_TYPE, "Overdue Task");
    getContentResolver().update(CPUser.Data.CONTENT_URI, val2, CPUser.Data.TASK_DUE_DATE + "<" +"'"+today+"'",null);

    ContentValues val3 = new ContentValues();
    val3.put(CPUser.Data.TASK_TYPE, "Active Task");
    getContentResolver().update(CPUser.Data.CONTENT_URI, val3, CPUser.Data.TASK_DUE_DATE + ">" +"'"+today+"'",null);
    }
    Catch(Exception ex)
    {   }   

Answer 1

If you want to store dates as text in the database, you always have to use “yyyy-MM-dd” format, otherwise you would not be able to do comparisons other than equal (“=”). What I do is to save all dates, times and timestamps as INT using Unix Epoch. This allows you to display dates in different formats (using locale for example) to display dates, without first parsing the date. It also allows any type of comparison (equals, greater than etc). The functions are straight forward:

public static long timestampFromUnixEpoch(long unixepoch) {
    if (unixepoch == 0)
        return 0;
    return (unixepoch * 1000) - TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset();
}

public static long unixEpochFromTimestamp(long timestampMS) {
    if (timestampMS == 0)
        return 0;
    return ((timestampMS + TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset()) / 1000);
}

public static long dateToUnixEpoch(Date date) {
    if (date == null)
        return 0;
    return unixEpochFromTimestamp(date.getTime());
}

public static Date unixEpochToDate(long unixepoch) {
    if (unixepoch == 0)
        return null;
    return new Date(timestampFromUnixEpoch(unixepoch));
}