Question

There are two times such as “startTime” = 23:57 and “endTime” = 00:50. How can I define that startTime belongs to the day that is before “endTime”?

   Date min = date("23:57");
   Date max = date("00:50");

   private static Date date(final String time) {
     final Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
     String[] hm = time.split(":");
     int hour = Integer.parseInt(hm[0]);
     int minute = Integer.parseInt(hm[1]);
     calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR,hour);
     calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE,minute);
     final Date result = calendar.getTime();
     return result;
   }

Answer 1

you could append a token of some kind, like + to the end your time:

Date max = date("00:50+");

and when parsing the time:

if time.endsWith("+") {
    calendar.add(Calendar.HOUR, 24);
}

if you needed to handle periods of longer than 24 hours you could use +1, +2 etc.