Java Data Type How to - Compare Date value in different formats

Question

We would like to know how to compare Date value in different formats.

Answer

import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
/*from w  w  w  . j  a  va  2  s. c  o  m*/
public class Main {

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    String startDate = "14-08-2014";
    String endDate = "21/08/2020";

    SimpleDateFormat sdf[] = new SimpleDateFormat[] {
        new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy"), new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy") };

    Date dateStart = parse(startDate, sdf);
    Date dateEnd = parse(endDate, sdf);

    System.out.println("Is today bewteen " + dateStart + " and " + dateEnd);
    Date today = new Date();
    if (today.after(dateStart) && today.before(dateEnd)) {
      System.out.println("Yes");
    } else {
      System.out.println("No");
    }
  }

  public static Date parse(String value, DateFormat... formatters) {
    Date date = null;
    for (DateFormat formatter : formatters) {
      try {
        date = formatter.parse(value);
        break;
      } catch (ParseException e) {
      }
    }
    return date;
  }

}

The code above generates the following result.