Best way to get maximum Date value in java?

Question

I\'m writing a bit of logic that requires treating null dates as meaning forever in the future (the date in question is an expiration date, which may or may not exist). Inst

Answer 1

Here is what I do:

public static final TimeZone UTC;

// 0001.01.01 12:00:00 AM +0000
public static final Date BEGINNING_OF_TIME;

// new Date(Long.MAX_VALUE) in UTC time zone
public static final Date END_OF_TIME;

static
{
    UTC = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
    final Calendar c = new GregorianCalendar(UTC);
    c.set(1, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0);
    c.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    BEGINNING_OF_TIME = c.getTime();
    c.setTime(new Date(Long.MAX_VALUE));
    END_OF_TIME = c.getTime();
}

Note that if the TimeZone is NOT UTC you will get offsets from the "end of time", which won't be maximal values. These are especially useful for inserting into Database fields and not having to have NULL dates.