Find Days Between Two Dates in Android

Last Updated : 06 Feb, 2022

There are many travels and accommodation-based Android applications which we use to check and buy tickets for any traveling and hotel booking. Inputs such as origin, traveling destination, selection of hotel, and trip dates are needed to book appropriate options. In the case of hotel booking, the number of days is calculated by finding the difference between the two dates provided they are separated by at least one day and the check-out date is after the check-in date.

So in this article, we will show you how you could find the difference between two given dates in Android. Follow the below steps once the IDE is ready.

Step by Step Implementation

Step 1: Create a New Project in Android Studio

To create a new project in Android Studio please refer to How to Create/Start a New Project in Android Studio. We demonstrated the application in Kotlin, so make sure you select Kotlin as the primary language while creating a New Project.

Step 2: Working with the activity_main.xml file

Navigate to the app > res > layout > activity_main.xml and add the below code to that file. Below is the code for the activity_main.xml file. Add a TextView that we will use to display the difference between the two dates.

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout 
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/text_view_1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_centerInParent="true"
        android:gravity="center"
        android:textSize="30sp"/>

</RelativeLayout>

Step 3: Working with the MainActivity.kt file

Go to the MainActivity.kt file and refer to the following code. Below is the code for the MainActivity.kt file. Comments are added inside the code to understand the code in more detail.

Kotlin

package org.geeksforgeeks.difftwodays

import android.annotation.SuppressLint
import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
import android.os.Bundle
import android.widget.TextView
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat

class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
    @SuppressLint("SimpleDateFormat", "SetTextI18n")
    override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)

        // Declaring and initializing 
        // the TextView from the layout file
        val mTextView = findViewById<TextView>(R.id.text_view_1)

        // Declaring two date strings
        val mDate1 = "01/01/2022"
        val mDate2 = "01/08/2022"

        // Creating a date format
        val mDateFormat = SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy")

        // Converting the dates 
        // from string to date format
        val mDate11 = mDateFormat.parse(mDate1)
        val mDate22 = mDateFormat.parse(mDate2)

        // Finding the absolute difference between
        // the two dates.time (in milli seconds)
        val mDifference = kotlin.math.abs(mDate11.time - mDate22.time)
        
        // Converting milli seconds to dates
        val mDifferenceDates = mDifference / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000)
        
        // Converting the above integer to string
        val mDayDifference = mDifferenceDates.toString()

        // Displaying the result in the TextView
        mTextView.text = "The difference between two dates is $mDayDifference days"
    }
}