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How do I time a method's execution in Java?
(42 answers)
How do I calculate the elapsed time of an event in Java? [duplicate]
(6 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I want to have something like this:
public class Stream
{
public startTime;
public endTime;
public getDuration()
{
return startTime - endTime;
}
}
Also it is important that for example if the startTime it's 23:00 and endTime 1:00 to get a duration of 2:00.
Which types to use in order to accomplish this in Java?
Unfortunately, none of the ten answers posted so far are quite right.
If you are measuring elapsed time, and you want it to be correct, you must use System.nanoTime(). You cannot use System.currentTimeMillis(), unless you don't mind your result being wrong.
The purpose of nanoTime is to measure elapsed time, and the purpose of currentTimeMillis is to measure wall-clock time. You can't use the one for the other purpose. The reason is that no computer's clock is perfect; it always drifts and occasionally needs to be corrected. This correction might either happen manually, or in the case of most machines, there's a process that runs and continually issues small corrections to the system clock ("wall clock"). These tend to happen often. Another such correction happens whenever there is a leap second.
Since nanoTime's purpose is to measure elapsed time, it is unaffected by any of these small corrections. It is what you want to use. Any timings currently underway with currentTimeMillis will be off -- possibly even negative.
You may say, "this doesn't sound like it would ever really matter that much," to which I say, maybe not, but overall, isn't correct code just better than incorrect code? Besides, nanoTime is shorter to type anyway.
Previously posted disclaimers about nanoTime usually having only microsecond precision are valid. Also it can take more than a whole microsecond to invoke, depending on circumstances (as can the other one), so don't expect to time very very small intervals correctly.
Which types to use in order to accomplish this in Java?
The short answer is a long. Now, more on how to measure...
System.currentTimeMillis()
The "traditional" way to do this is indeed to use System.currentTimeMillis():
long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
// ... do something ...
long estimatedTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime;
o.a.c.l.t.StopWatch
Note that Commons Lang has a StopWatch class that can be used to measure execution time in milliseconds. It has methods methods like split(), suspend(), resume(), etc that allow to take measure at different points of the execution and that you may find convenient. Have a look at it.
System.nanoTime()
You may prefer to use System.nanoTime() if you are looking for extremely precise measurements of elapsed time. From its javadoc:
long startTime = System.nanoTime();
// ... the code being measured ...
long estimatedTime = System.nanoTime() - startTime;
Jamon
Another option would be to use JAMon, a tool that gathers statistics (execution time, number of hit, average execution time, min, max, etc) for any code that comes between start() and stop() methods. Below, a very simple example:
import com.jamonapi.*;
...
Monitor mon=MonitorFactory.start("myFirstMonitor");
...Code Being Timed...
mon.stop();
Check out this article on www.javaperformancetunning.com for a nice introduction.
Using AOP
Finally, if you don't want to clutter your code with these measurement (or if you can't change existing code), then AOP would be a perfect weapon. I'm not going to discuss this very deeply but I wanted at least to mention it.
Below, a very simple aspect using AspectJ and JAMon (here, the short name of the pointcut will be used for the JAMon monitor, hence the call to thisJoinPoint.toShortString()):
public aspect MonitorAspect {
pointcut monitor() : execution(* *.ClassToMonitor.methodToMonitor(..));
Object arround() : monitor() {
Monitor monitor = MonitorFactory.start(thisJoinPoint.toShortString());
Object returnedObject = proceed();
monitor.stop();
return returnedObject;
}
}
The pointcut definition could be easily adapted to monitor any method based on the class name, the package name, the method name, or any combination of these. Measurement is really a perfect use case for AOP.
Your new class:
public class TimeWatch {
long starts;
public static TimeWatch start() {
return new TimeWatch();
}
private TimeWatch() {
reset();
}
public TimeWatch reset() {
starts = System.currentTimeMillis();
return this;
}
public long time() {
long ends = System.currentTimeMillis();
return ends - starts;
}
public long time(TimeUnit unit) {
return unit.convert(time(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
}
}
Usage:
TimeWatch watch = TimeWatch.start();
// do something
long passedTimeInMs = watch.time();
long passedTimeInSeconds = watch.time(TimeUnit.SECONDS);
Afterwards, the time passed can be converted to whatever format you like, with a calender for example
Greetz,
GHad
If the purpose is to simply print coarse timing information to your program logs, then the easy solution for Java projects is not to write your own stopwatch or timer classes, but just use the org.apache.commons.lang.time.StopWatch class that is part of Apache Commons Lang.
final StopWatch stopwatch = new StopWatch();
stopwatch.start();
LOGGER.debug("Starting long calculations: {}", stopwatch);
...
LOGGER.debug("Time after key part of calcuation: {}", stopwatch);
...
LOGGER.debug("Finished calculating {}", stopwatch);
tl;dr
for example if the startTime it's 23:00 and endTime 1:00 to get a duration of 2:00.
Not possible. If you have only time-of-day, the clock stops at midnight. Without the context of dates, how do we know if you mean 1 AM on the next day, next week, or next decade?
So going from 11 PM to 1 AM means moving backwards in time 22 hours, running the hands of the clock counterclockwise. See the result below, a negative twenty-two hours.
Duration.between( // Represent a span of time a total number of seconds plus a fractional second in nanoseconds.
LocalTime.of( 23 , 0 ) , // A time-of-day without a date and without a time zone.
LocalTime.of( 1 , 0 ) // A time-of-day clock stops at midnight. So getting to 1 AM from 11 PM means going backwards 22 hours.
) // Return a `Duration` object.
.toString() // Generate a `String` representing this span of time using standard ISO 8601 format: PnYnMnDTnHnMnS
PT-22H
Crossing midnight requires the larger context of date in addition to time-of-day (see below).
How do I measure time elapsed in Java?
Capture the current moment in UTC, with Instant.now().
Capture another such moment later.
Pass both to Duration.between.
(a) From the resulting Duration object, extract a number of 24-hour days, hours, minutes, seconds, and fractional second in nanoseconds by calling the various to…Part methods.(b) Or, call toString to generate a String in standard ISO 8601 format of PnYnMnDTnHnMnS.
Example code, using pair of Instant objects.
Duration.between( // Represent a span of time a total number of seconds plus a fractional second in nanoseconds.
then , // Some other `Instant` object, captured earlier with `Instant.now()`.
Instant.now() // Capture the current moment in UTC with a resolution as fine as nanoseconds, depending on the limits of your host computer hardware clock and operating system. Generally you will get current moment in microseconds (six decimal digits of fractional second) in Java 9, 10, and 11, but only milliseconds in Java 8.
) // Return a `Duration` object.
.toString() // Generate a `String` representing this span of time using standard ISO 8601 format: PnYnMnDTnHnMnS
PT3M27.602197S
New Technology In Java 8+
We have new technology for this now built into Java 8 and later, the java.time framework.
java.time
The java.time framework is defined by JSR 310, inspired by the highly successful Joda-Time project, extended by the ThreeTen-Extra project, and described in the Oracle Tutorial.
The old date-time classes such as java.util.Date/.Calendar bundled with the earliest versions of Java have proven to be poorly designed, confusing, and troublesome. They are supplanted by the java.time classes.
Resolution
Other answers discuss resolution.
The java.time classes have nanosecond resolution, up to nine digits of a decimal fraction of a second. For example, 2016-03-12T04:29:39.123456789Z.
Both the old java.util.Date/.Calendar classes and the Joda-Time classes have millisecond resolution (3 digits of fraction). For example, 2016-03-12T04:29:39.123Z.
In Java 8, the current moment is fetched with up to only millisecond resolution because of a legacy issue. In Java 9 and later, the current time can be determined up to nanosecond resolution provided your computer’s hardware clock runs so finely.
Time-Of-Day
If you truly want to work with only the time-of-day lacking any date or time zone, use the LocalTime class.
LocalTime sooner = LocalTime.of ( 17, 00 );
LocalTime later = LocalTime.of ( 19, 00 );
A Duration represents a span of time it terms of a count of seconds plus nanoseconds.
Duration duration = Duration.between ( sooner, later );
Dump to console.
System.out.println ( "sooner: " + sooner + " | later: " + later + " | duration: " + duration );
sooner: 17:00 | later: 19:00 | duration: PT2H
ISO 8601
Notice the default output of Duration::toString is in standard ISO 8601 format. In this format, the P marks the beginning (as in 'Period'), and the T separates any years-months-days portion from the hours-minutes-seconds portion.
Crossing Midnight
Unfortunately, working with time-of-day only gets tricky when you wrap around the clock crossing midnight. The LocalTime class handles this by assuming you want to go backwards to an earlier point in the day.
Using the same code as above but going from 23:00 to 01:00 results in a negative twenty-two hours (PT-22H).
LocalTime sooner = LocalTime.of ( 23, 0 );
LocalTime later = LocalTime.of ( 1, 0 );
sooner: 23:00 | later: 01:00 | duration: PT-22H
Date-Time
If you intend to cross midnight, it probably makes sense for you to be working with date-time values rather than time-of-day-only values.
Time Zone
Time zone is crucial to dates. So we specify three items: (1) the desired date, (2) desired time-of-day, and (3) the time zone as a context by which to interpret that date and time. Here we arbitrarily choose the time zone of the Montréal area.
If you define the date by only an offset-from-UTC, use a ZoneOffset with a OffsetDateTime. If you have a full time zone (offset plus rules for handling anomalies such as Daylight Saving Time), use a ZoneId with a ZonedDateTime.
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of ( 2016, 1, 23 );
ZoneId zoneId = ZoneId.of ( "America/Montreal" );
ZonedDateTime sooner = ZonedDateTime.of ( localDate, LocalTime.of ( 23, 0 ), zoneId );
We specify the later time as next day at 1:00 AM.
ZonedDateTime later = ZonedDateTime.of ( localDate.plusDays ( 1 ), LocalTime.of ( 1, 0 ), zoneId );
We calculate the Duration in the same manner as seen above. Now we get the two hours expected by this Question.
Duration duration = Duration.between ( sooner, later );
Dump to console.
System.out.println ( "sooner: " + sooner + " | later: " + later + " | duration: " + duration );
sooner: 2016-01-23T23:00-05:00[America/Montreal] | later: 2016-01-24T01:00-05:00[America/Montreal] | duration: PT2H
Daylight Saving Time
If the date-times at hand had involved Daylight Saving Time (DST) or other such anomaly, the java.time classes would adjust as needed. Read class doc for details.
About java.time
The java.time framework is built into Java 8 and later. These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java.util.Date, Calendar, & SimpleDateFormat.
The Joda-Time project, now in maintenance mode, advises migration to the java.time classes.
To learn more, see the Oracle Tutorial. And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations. Specification is JSR 310.
You may exchange java.time objects directly with your database. Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4.2 or later. No need for strings, no need for java.sql.* classes.
Where to obtain the java.time classes?
Java SE 8, Java SE 9, Java SE 10, and later
Built-in.
Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation.
Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes.
Java SE 6 and Java SE 7
Much of the java.time functionality is back-ported to Java 6 & 7 in ThreeTen-Backport.
Android
Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java.time classes.
For earlier Android (<26), the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport (mentioned above). See How to use ThreeTenABP….
The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java.time with additional classes. This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java.time. You may find some useful classes here such as Interval, YearWeek, YearQuarter, and more.
It is worth noting that
System.currentTimeMillis() has only millisecond accuracy at best. At worth its can be 16 ms on some windows systems. It has a lower cost that alternatives < 200 ns.
System.nanoTime() is only micro-second accurate on most systems and can jump on windows systems by 100 microseconds (i.e sometimes it not as accurate as it appears)
Calendar is a very expensive way to calculate time. (i can think of apart from XMLGregorianCalendar) Sometimes its the most appropriate solution but be aware you should only time long intervals.
Which types to use in order to accomplish this in Java?
Answer: long
public class Stream {
public long startTime;
public long endTime;
public long getDuration() {
return endTime - startTime;
}
// I would add
public void start() {
startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
public void stop() {
endTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
}
}
Usage:
Stream s = ....
s.start();
// do something for a while
s.stop();
s.getDuration(); // gives the elapsed time in milliseconds.
That's my direct answer for your first question.
For the last "note" I would suggest you to use Joda Time. It contains an interval class suitable for what you need.
Java provides the static method System.currentTimeMillis(). And that's returning a long value, so it's a good reference. A lot of other classes accept a 'timeInMillis' parameter which is long as well.
And a lot of people find it easier to use the Joda Time library to do calculations on dates and times.
If you prefer using Java's Calendar API you can try this,
Date startingTime = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
//later on
Date now = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
long timeElapsed = now.getTime() - startingTime.getTime();
If you are writing an application that must deal with durations of time, then please take a look at Joda-Time which has class specifically for handling Durations, Intervals, and Periods. Your getDuration() method looks like it could return a Joda-Time Interval:
DateTime start = new DateTime(2004, 12, 25, 0, 0, 0, 0);
DateTime end = new DateTime(2005, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);
public Interval getInterval() {
Interval interval = new Interval(start, end);
}
Byte Stream Reader Elapsed Time for 23.7 MB is 96 secs
import java.io.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
class ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream
{
private long startTime = 0;
private long stopTime = 0;
private boolean running = false;
public void start()
{
this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
this.running = true;
}
public void stop()
{
this.stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
this.running = false;
}
public long getElapsedTime()
{
long elapsed;
if (running) {
elapsed = (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
}
else {
elapsed = (stopTime - startTime);
}
return elapsed;
}
public long getElapsedTimeSecs()
{
long elapsed;
if (running)
{
elapsed = ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000);
}
else
{
elapsed = ((stopTime - startTime) / 1000);
}
return elapsed;
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream s = new ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream();
s.start();
FileInputStream in = null;
FileOutputStream out = null;
try {
in = new FileInputStream("vowels.txt"); // 23.7 MB File
out = new FileOutputStream("output.txt");
int c;
while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
out.write(c);
}
}finally {
if (in != null) {
in.close();
}
if (out != null) {
out.close();
}
}
s.stop();
System.out.println("elapsed time in seconds: " + s.getElapsedTimeSecs());
}
}
[Elapsed Time for Byte Stream Reader][1]
**Character Stream Reader Elapsed Time for 23.7 MB is 3 secs**
import java.io.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;
class ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream
{
private long startTime = 0;
private long stopTime = 0;
private boolean running = false;
public void start()
{
this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
this.running = true;
}
public void stop()
{
this.stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
this.running = false;
}
public long getElapsedTime()
{
long elapsed;
if (running) {
elapsed = (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
}
else {
elapsed = (stopTime - startTime);
}
return elapsed;
}
public long getElapsedTimeSecs()
{
long elapsed;
if (running)
{
elapsed = ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000);
}
else
{
elapsed = ((stopTime - startTime) / 1000);
}
return elapsed;
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
{
ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream s = new ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream();
s.start();
FileReader in = null; // CharacterStream Reader
FileWriter out = null;
try {
in = new FileReader("vowels.txt"); // 23.7 MB
out = new FileWriter("output.txt");
int c;
while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
out.write(c);
}
}finally {
if (in != null) {
in.close();
}
if (out != null) {
out.close();
}
}
s.stop();
System.out.println("elapsed time in seconds: " + s.getElapsedTimeSecs());
}
}
[Elapsed Time for Character Stream Reader][2]
[1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/hYo8y.png
[2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/xPjCK.png
If you're getting your timestamps from System.currentTimeMillis(), then your time variables should be longs.
i found this code to be useful when timing things:
public class Et {
public Et() {
reset();
}
public void reset() {
t0=System.nanoTime();
}
public long t0() {
return t0;
}
public long dt() {
return System.nanoTime()-t0();
}
public double etms() {
return etms(dt());
}
#Override public String toString() {
return etms()+" ms.";
}
public static double etms(long dt) {
return dt/1000000.; // 1_000_000. breaks cobertura
}
private Long t0;
}
Use this:
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm");
Date d1 = format.parse(strStartTime);
Date d2 = format.parse(strEndTime);
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds,diffMinutes,diffHours;
if (diff > 0) {
diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
}
else{
long diffpos = (24*((60 * 60 * 1000))) + diff;
diffSeconds = diffpos / 1000 % 60;
diffMinutes = diffpos / (60 * 1000) % 60;
diffHours = (diffpos / (60 * 60 * 1000));
}
(Also it is important that for example if the startTime it's 23:00 and endTime 1:00 to get a duration of 2:00.)
the "else" part can get it correct
I built a formatting function based on stuff I stole off SO. I needed a way of "profiling" stuff in log messages, so I needed a fixed length duration message.
public static String GetElapsed(long aInitialTime, long aEndTime, boolean aIncludeMillis)
{
StringBuffer elapsed = new StringBuffer();
Map<String, Long> units = new HashMap<String, Long>();
long milliseconds = aEndTime - aInitialTime;
long seconds = milliseconds / 1000;
long minutes = milliseconds / (60 * 1000);
long hours = milliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000);
long days = milliseconds / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
units.put("milliseconds", milliseconds);
units.put("seconds", seconds);
units.put("minutes", minutes);
units.put("hours", hours);
units.put("days", days);
if (days > 0)
{
long leftoverHours = hours % 24;
units.put("hours", leftoverHours);
}
if (hours > 0)
{
long leftoeverMinutes = minutes % 60;
units.put("minutes", leftoeverMinutes);
}
if (minutes > 0)
{
long leftoverSeconds = seconds % 60;
units.put("seconds", leftoverSeconds);
}
if (seconds > 0)
{
long leftoverMilliseconds = milliseconds % 1000;
units.put("milliseconds", leftoverMilliseconds);
}
elapsed.append(PrependZeroIfNeeded(units.get("days")) + " days ")
.append(PrependZeroIfNeeded(units.get("hours")) + " hours ")
.append(PrependZeroIfNeeded(units.get("minutes")) + " minutes ")
.append(PrependZeroIfNeeded(units.get("seconds")) + " seconds ")
.append(PrependZeroIfNeeded(units.get("milliseconds")) + " ms");
return elapsed.toString();
}
private static String PrependZeroIfNeeded(long aValue)
{
return aValue < 10 ? "0" + aValue : Long.toString(aValue);
}
And a test class:
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import junit.framework.TestCase;
public class TimeUtilsTest extends TestCase
{
public void testGetElapsed()
{
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
GregorianCalendar calendar = (GregorianCalendar) Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(new Date(start));
calendar.add(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 610);
calendar.add(Calendar.SECOND, 35);
calendar.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 5);
calendar.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, 5);
long end = calendar.getTimeInMillis();
assertEquals("05 days 00 hours 05 minutes 35 seconds 610 ms", TimeUtils.GetElapsed(start, end, true));
}
}
Given a time in milliseconds, how can you check if it was yesterday?
You would first convert the millis to a Date or LocalDate and then run the comparison.
Here's a quick example:
import java.time.*;
class DateCheckSample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
// Our input date
long millis = System.currentTimeMillis();
// Convert the millis to a LocalDate
Instant instant = Instant.ofEpochMilli(millis);
LocalDate inputDate = instant.atZone(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toLocalDate();
// Grab today's date
LocalDate todaysDate = LocalDate.now();
System.out.println(millis);
// Check if date is yesterday
if (todaysDate.minusDays(1).equals(inputDate)) {
System.out.println(inputDate + " was yesterday!");
} else {
System.out.println(inputDate + " was NOT yeseterday!");
}
}
}
The Result:
2019-02-16 was NOT yesterday!
If you'd like to confirm it's working, just subtract 100000000 from millis before running.
Side Note: As pointed out in the comments on your question, 23:59 is not a millis value...
If you don't want to use Date, you can simply use the modulus operator with a bit of clever arithmetics. System#currentTimeMillis returns the amount of milliseconds that have passed since January 1, 1970, midnight (00:00).
Combining this with the number of milliseconds in a day (86,400,000), we can figure the time at which the last start of day was — which is when today began. Then we can see if the time given to us is smaller or larger than that value.
boolean isToday(long milliseconds) {
long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
long todayStart = now - (now % 86400000);
if(milliseconds >= todayStart) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
To check if a time is yesterday instead of today, we simply check if it is between the start of today and the start of yesterday.
boolean isYesterday(long milliseconds) {
long now = System.currentTimeMillis();
long todayStart = now - (now % 86400000);
long yesterdayStart = todayStart - 86400000;
if(milliseconds >= yesterdayStart && < todayStart) {
return true;
}
return false;
}
You can convert the milliseconds to Date and then compare the day with today's Date.
For reference: Convert millisecond String to Date in Java
I have two date strings and I want to know how many seconds difference there is between them.
2014-05-19 16:37:36:690 // formattedDate
2014-05-19 19:38:00:000 // expString
I use the following code:
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss:SSS");
Date d1 = null;
Date d2 = null;
d1 = sdf.parse(expString);
d2 = sdf.parse(formattedDate);
long diff = d1.getTime() - d2.getTime();
long exp = diff / 1000 % 60;
In this particular example exp is 23. What is the problem here?
.getTime() returns the time in milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 GMT. So diff has the time in milliseconds between the two dates.
long diff = d1.getTime() - d2.getTime();
// diff = 10882310
You user integer division to get to seconds, which drops the extra milliseconds.
long temp = diff / 1000;
// temp = 10823
Then you modulus by 60, which gets you seconds and ignores seconds that were attributed to minutes.
long exp = temp % 60;
// exp = 23
If you want the total time in seconds between the two dates, you don't want to do that last operation.
Don't use modulus division! Just use plain division:
long diff = d1.getTime() - d2.getTime();
long exp = diff / 1000;
Better yet, use the TimeUnit enum from the JDK:
long exp = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(d1.getTime() - d2.getTime());
Joda-Time offers a Seconds class to just what you want.
The Joda-Time library also has classes to represent spans of time: Duration, Interval, and Period. You don’t strictly need them for this specific question, but they will be handy for related work.
Below is some untested code off the top of my head.
For simplicity, convert your strings to strict ISO 8601 format. Replace the SPACE with a T.
String inputStart = "…".replace( " ", "T" );
// same for stop
Create date-time objects. Explicitly assign a time zone by which to parse those strings. Are that UTC?
DateTime startDateTime = new DateTime( inputStart, DateTimeZone.UTC );
// repeat for stop
long secs = Seconds.secondsBetween( startDateTime, stopDateTime ).getSeconds();
Please help me to write a method that returns number (int) of days from a provided day to the todays date.
So let's say, I am providing into a method an int 110515 (for May 15, 2011). It should return 9 (inclusive or exclusive is not important to me).
If you can use Joda, this is super simple:
Days d = Days.daysBetween(startDate, endDate);
int days = d.getDays();
Of course you could combine these.
int days = Days.daysBetween(startDate, endDate).getDays();
Joda objects can go back and forth between the JDK's date class pretty easily.
For the first part, make a DateFormatter then parse the string based on it, like this:
DateTimeFormatter fmt = DateTimeFormat.forPattern("yyyyMMdd");
DateTime dt = fmt.parseDateTime(strInputDateTime);
(After turning the int into a string of course.)
Should dates in the future include the current day? Meaning if today is May 24th 2011, should 110529 result in 4 or 5?
public static long numberOfDays(final long date) throws ParseException {
final Calendar compare = Calendar.getInstance();
compare.setTime(new SimpleDateFormat("yyMMdd").parse(String.valueOf(date)));
final int dstOffset = compare.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET);
final long currentTimeMillis = System.currentTimeMillis();
final long compareTimeInMillis = compare.getTimeInMillis();
long difference = 0;
if (currentTimeMillis >= compareTimeInMillis) {
difference = currentTimeMillis - compareTimeInMillis - dstOffset;
} else {
difference = compareTimeInMillis - currentTimeMillis + dstOffset;
}
return difference / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
}
Since this seems like a homework question I will help you out. You will want to use Calendar.getTimeInMillis. Then you will want to create a constant that is NUMBER_OF_MILLIS_IN_DAY . From there you subtract the initialDate from the currentDate (both time in millis) and divide by the constant.