See if the current time falls within a specific range of time in the current day in Java

Question

I am sure this was done 1000 times in 1000 different places. The question is I want to know if there is a better/standard/faster way to check if current \"time\" is between

Answer 1

The Midnight Problem

Other answers fail to mention it - and the OP doesn't ask - but you should really consider when the interval spans across midnight.

Time is difficult. I purposely left the "long" version of the code and didn't abbreviate logical conditions to make it as clear as possible the what's and the why's.

/**
 * Takes into consideration that the interval may span accross midnight
 *
 * @param clock to make unit testing easier, just replace for Clock.systemUTC() in your code 
 * @param start the interval start
 * @param end the interval end
 * @return true if "now" is inside the specified interval
 */
static boolean isNowBetweenLocalTime(Clock clock, final LocalTime start, final LocalTime end) {
    LocalTime now = LocalTime.now(clock);

    // if interval crosses midnight
    if (end.isBefore(start)) {
        if (now.isAfter(start) && now.isAfter(end)) {
            return true;
        }
        if (now.isBefore(start) && now.isBefore(end)) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    // if interval does not cross midnight
    if (end.isAfter(start)) {
        if (now.isAfter(start) && now.isBefore(end)) {
            return true;
        }
        return false;
    }

    return false; // interval is 0 so start and end always outside interval
}

Verbosity is not always wrong. This method will be buried in a utility class and two years from now you'll thank yourself for understanding what it does!