Introduction

Dates are something we encounter in everyday life, whether they’re used for calendars, scheduling appointments, or even remembering birthdays. Naturally, when working with dates we will often need to know if a certain date comes before or after another, or if they represent the same calendar date.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how to compare two dates in Java.

• Comparing Dates
• Using Date.compareTo()
• Using Date.before()[, ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usingdatebeforedateafteranddateequals)Date.after()[, and ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usingdatebeforedateafteranddateequals)Date.equals()
• Comparing LocalDates
• Using LocalDate.isAfter()[, ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usinglocaldateisafterlocaldateisbeforeandlocaldateisequal)LocalDate.isBefore()[, ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usinglocaldateisafterlocaldateisbeforeandlocaldateisequal)LocalDate.isEqual()
• Using LocalDate.compareTo()[ and ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usinglocaldatecomparetoandlocaldateequals)LocalDate.equals()
• Comparing Calendars
• Comparing with Joda-Time
• Using DateTimeComparator
• Using LocalDate.isEqual()
• Using LocalDate.isBefore()[ and ](https://stackabuse.com/how-to-compare-dates-in-java#usinglocaldateisbeforeandlocaldateisafter)LocalDate.isAfter()
• Using LocalDate.compareTo()
• Using LocalDate.equals()

#java #datetime #joda-time #how to compare dates in java #compare dates