Android/Java - Date Difference in days

Question

I am getting the current date (in format 12/31/1999 i.e. mm/dd/yyyy) as using the below code:

Textview txtViewData;
txtViewDate.setText(\"Today is \" +
              


        

Answer 1

The Correct Way from Sam Quest's answer only works if the first date is earlier than the second. Moreover, it will return 1 if the two dates are within a single day.

This is the solution that worked best for me. Just like most other solutions, it would still show incorrect results on two days in a year because of wrong day light saving offset.

private final static long MILLISECS_PER_DAY = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000;

long calculateDeltaInDays(Calendar a, Calendar b) {

    // Optional: avoid cloning objects if it is the same day
    if(a.get(Calendar.ERA) == b.get(Calendar.ERA) 
            && a.get(Calendar.YEAR) == b.get(Calendar.YEAR)
            && a.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR) == b.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR)) {
        return 0;
    }
    Calendar a2 = (Calendar) a.clone();
    Calendar b2 = (Calendar) b.clone();
    a2.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    a2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    a2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    a2.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    b2.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    b2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    b2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    b2.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    long diff = a2.getTimeInMillis() - b2.getTimeInMillis();
    long days = diff / MILLISECS_PER_DAY;
    return Math.abs(days);
}