Find the duration of difference between two dates in Java

Last Updated : 24 Nov, 2022

Given two dates start_date and end_date with time in the form of strings, the task is to find the difference between two dates in Java. Examples:

Input: start_date = “10-01-2018 01:10:20”, end_date = “10-06-2020 06:30:50” Output: 2 years, 152 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 30 seconds Input: start_date = “10-01-2019 01:00:00”, end_date = “10-06-2020 06:00:00” Output: 1 years, 152 days, 5 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds

Method 1: Use SimpleDateFormat and Date class to find the difference between two dates. Below are the steps:

Create an object of SimpleDateFormat class and converts string format to date object.
Parse both start_date and end_date from a string to produce the date, this can be done by using parse() method of the simpleDateFormat class.
Find the time difference between two dates in milliseconds by using the method getTime() in Java as d2.getTime() – d1.getTime().
Use date-time mathematical formula to find the difference between two dates. It returns the years, days, hours, minutes, and seconds between the two specifies dates.
Print the final result.

Below is the implementation of the above approach:

Java

// Java program for the above approach
 
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
 
class GFG {
 
    // Function to print difference in
    // time start_date and end_date
    static void
    findDifference(String start_date,
                   String end_date)
    {
 
        // SimpleDateFormat converts the
        // string format to date object
        SimpleDateFormat sdf
            = new SimpleDateFormat(
                "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
 
        // Try Block
        try {
 
            // parse method is used to parse
            // the text from a string to
            // produce the date
            Date d1 = sdf.parse(start_date);
            Date d2 = sdf.parse(end_date);
 
            // Calculate time difference
            // in milliseconds
            long difference_In_Time
                = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
 
            // Calculate time difference in
            // seconds, minutes, hours, years,
            // and days
            long difference_In_Seconds
                = (difference_In_Time
                   / 1000)
                  % 60;
 
            long difference_In_Minutes
                = (difference_In_Time
                   / (1000 * 60))
                  % 60;
 
            long difference_In_Hours
                = (difference_In_Time
                   / (1000 * 60 * 60))
                  % 24;
 
            long difference_In_Years
                = (difference_In_Time
                   / (1000l * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365));
 
            long difference_In_Days
                = (difference_In_Time
                   / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24))
                  % 365;
 
            // Print the date difference in
            // years, in days, in hours, in
            // minutes, and in seconds
 
            System.out.print(
                "Difference "
                + "between two dates is: ");
 
            System.out.println(
                difference_In_Years
                + " years, "
                + difference_In_Days
                + " days, "
                + difference_In_Hours
                + " hours, "
                + difference_In_Minutes
                + " minutes, "
                + difference_In_Seconds
                + " seconds");
        }
 
        // Catch the Exception
        catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Given start Date
        String start_date
            = "10-01-2018 01:10:20";
 
        // Given end Date
        String end_date
            = "10-06-2020 06:30:50";
 
        // Function Call
        findDifference(start_date, end_date);
    }
}

Output:

Difference between two dates is: 2 years, 152 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 30 seconds

Method 2: We can find the difference between two dates in a better way by using Java built-in class TimeUnit. Below is the implementation of the above approach:

Java

// Java program to find the
// difference between two dates
 
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.Date;
 
class GFG {
 
    // Function to print difference in
    // time start_date and end_date
    static void findDifference(String start_date,
                               String end_date)
    {
        // SimpleDateFormat converts the
        // string format to date object
        SimpleDateFormat sdf
            = new SimpleDateFormat(
                "dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
 
        // Try Class
        try {
 
            // parse method is used to parse
            // the text from a string to
            // produce the date
            Date d1 = sdf.parse(start_date);
            Date d2 = sdf.parse(end_date);
 
            //Calculate time difference
            // in milliseconds
            long difference_In_Time
                = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
 
            //Calculate time difference in seconds,
            // minutes, hours, years, and days
            long difference_In_Seconds
                = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS
                      .toSeconds(difference_In_Time)
                  % 60;
 
            long difference_In_Minutes
                = TimeUnit
                      .MILLISECONDS
                      .toMinutes(difference_In_Time)
                  % 60;
 
            long difference_In_Hours
                = TimeUnit
                      .MILLISECONDS
                      .toHours(difference_In_Time)
                  % 24;
 
            long difference_In_Days
                = TimeUnit
                      .MILLISECONDS
                      .toDays(difference_In_Time)
                  % 365;
 
            long difference_In_Years
                = TimeUnit
                      .MILLISECONDS
                      .toDays(difference_In_Time)
                  / 365l;
 
            // Print the date difference in
            // years, in days, in hours, in
            // minutes, and in seconds
            System.out.print(
                "Difference"
                + " between two dates is: ");
 
            // Print result
            System.out.println(
                difference_In_Years
                + " years, "
                + difference_In_Days
                + " days, "
                + difference_In_Hours
                + " hours, "
                + difference_In_Minutes
                + " minutes, "
                + difference_In_Seconds
                + " seconds");
        }
        catch (ParseException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Given start_date
        String start_date
            = "10-01-2018 01:10:20";
 
        // Given end_date
        String end_date
            = "10-06-2020 06:30:50";
 
        // Function Call
        findDifference(start_date,
                       end_date);
    }
}

Output:

Difference between two dates is: 2 years, 152 days, 5 hours, 20 minutes, 30 seconds

Method 3: Use Period class in Java to find the difference between two days. The Period.between() method is used to calculate the difference between two dates in years, months, and days. Below is the implementation of the above approach:

Java

// Java program for the above approach
 
import java.time.*;
import java.util.*;
 
class GFG {
 
    // Function to print difference in
    // time start_date and end_date
    static void
    findDifference(LocalDate start_date,
                   LocalDate end_date)
    {
 
        // find the period between
        // the start and end date
        Period diff
            = Period
                  .between(start_date,
                           end_date);
 
        // Print the date difference
        // in years, months, and days
        System.out.print(
            "Difference "
            + "between two dates is: ");
 
        // Print the result
        System.out.printf(
            "%d years, %d months"
                + " and %d days ",
            diff.getYears(),
            diff.getMonths(),
            diff.getDays());
    }
 
    // Driver Code
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        // Start date
        LocalDate start_date
            = LocalDate.of(2018, 01, 10);
 
        // End date
        LocalDate end_date
            = LocalDate.of(2020, 06, 10);
 
        // Function Call
        findDifference(start_date,
                       end_date);
    }
}