Question

I have 2 dates in a String format (ex. 2012-04-23, 2012-03-08), and I want to find the difference between them.

What is the best way to calculate that in Java?

I am just concerned with the date and not the time

Answer 1

You can convert string to date using:

String dateString = "2012-04-23";
Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-mm-dd").parse(dateString);

You can read about SimpleDateFormat further here.

---

As to difference between two dates, you can calculate it in milliseconds with:

int milliseconds = dateOne.getTime() - dateTwo.getTime();

getTime() returns the number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970.

To convert it in days, use:

int days = milliseconds / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24)