Add 1 Week to a Date, which way is preferred?

Question

I am reviewing some code at work and came across an inconsistency in how the code handles adding 1 week to the current time and was wondering if there was any reason why one

Answer 1

First and foremost, I would argue that you replace it with JodaTime. http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/ It is a very nice time library. You'll want to look at this page to see how easy it is to add days or weeks to a particular point in time: http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/key_period.html Can't do this, mobile device with incompatible JVM. Bummer.

Your first example is easier to read and will be easier to use by your developers. It also uses the Calendar classes which is the generally accepted way to manipulate dates in Java. What makes it better is that it has a clear method name that sets the expectation for what it does.

So if you refactor your system to consistently use com.DaveJ.util.date.DateUtils.addDaysToDate(final Date date, int noOfDays) you can then do whatever you want inside that method, be it Calendar or millis or Joda, and be consistent within your application. Don't forget to write some unit tests for it!