Sum two dates in Java

Question

How can I add two dates in Java?

Example: The sum of \"2010-01-14 19:16:17\" \"0000-10-03 01:10:05\"
would result in \"2010-11-17 20:26:22\".

I know how

Answer 1

Don't sum the time in millis of the two dates!

Date d1 = new Date();
Date d2 = new Date();
Date dTotal = new Date(d1.getTime() + d2.getTime());
System.out.println(dTotal); // Incorrect! Misses about 1970 years.

Just clone the Calendar and add the datetime parts one by one.

Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar cTotal = (Calendar) c1.clone();
cTotal.add(Calendar.YEAR, c2.get(Calendar.YEAR));
cTotal.add(Calendar.MONTH, c2.get(Calendar.MONTH) + 1); // Months are zero-based!
cTotal.add(Calendar.DATE, c2.get(Calendar.DATE));
cTotal.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, c2.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY));
cTotal.add(Calendar.MINUTE, c2.get(Calendar.MINUTE));
cTotal.add(Calendar.SECOND, c2.get(Calendar.SECOND));
cTotal.add(Calendar.MILLISECOND, c2.get(Calendar.MILLISECOND));
System.out.println(cTotal.getTime()); // Correct!

Needless to say, JodaTime is smarter and cleaner with this.