How to compare two string dates in Java?

Question

I have two dates in String format like below -

String startDate = \"2014/09/12 00:00\";

String endDate = \"2014/09/13 00:00\";

I want to

Answer 1

Use SimpleDateFormat to convert to Date to compare:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm");
Date start = sdf.parse(startDate);
Date end = sdf.parse(endDate);
System.out.println(start.before(end));