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"is this date the third thursday of the month?" - Java Library?

I've got a few dozen backlog requests in the pipeline like
'I need this functionality to run on the third Thursday of every month, and the first Wednesday of every other month...'
I've already got a function that runs every day, i just need the: isThirdSundayOfMonth(date) bit to append onto then end.
The less time I spend considering the nuances of the Gregorian calendar and timezones, the better my life is.
Anyone know a Java library that simplifies this sort of calculation? No xml config or frameworks or anything. Just a .Jar and a documented, readable API would be perfect.
Any help would be much appreciated.

Complete overview:
In Java-8 (new standard):
LocalDate input = LocalDate.now(); // using system timezone
int ordinal = 3;
DayOfWeek weekday = DayOfWeek.SUNDAY;
LocalDate adjusted =
input.with(TemporalAdjusters.dayOfWeekInMonth(ordinal, weekday));
boolean isThirdSundayInMonth = input.equals(adjusted);
In Joda-Time (popular 3rd-party-library):
LocalDate input = new LocalDate(); // using system timezone
int ordinal = 3;
int weekday = DateTimeConstants.SUNDAY;
LocalDate start = new LocalDate(input.getYear(), input.getMonthOfYear(), 1);
LocalDate date = start.withDayOfWeek(weekday);
LocalDate adjusted = (
date.isBefore(start))
? date.plusWeeks(ordinal)
: date.plusWeeks(ordinal - 1);
boolean isThirdSundayInMonth = input.equals(adjusted);
Using java.util.GregorianCalendar (old standard):
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
GregorianCalendar input = new GregorianCalendar();
int ordinal = 3;
int weekday = Calendar.SUNDAY;
GregorianCalendar start =
new GregorianCalendar(input.get(Calendar.YEAR), input.get(Calendar.MONTH), 1);
int dow = start.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK); // Sun=1, Mon=2, ...
int delta = (weekday - dow);
if (delta < 0) {
delta += 7;
}
start.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, delta + (ordinal - 1) * 7);
String comp1 = sdf.format(input.getTime());
String comp2 = sdf.format(start.getTime());
boolean isThirdSundayInMonth = comp1.equals(comp2);
Even with the ugliest library a solution is possible ;-) I have used a string comparison in order to get rid of any timezone effects or time-of-day-parts including milliseconds. A field-wise comparison based only on year, month and day-of-month is also a good idea.
Using Time4J (my own 3rd-party-library):
PlainDate input =
SystemClock.inLocalView().today(); // using system timezone
Weekday weekday = Weekday.SUNDAY;
PlainDate adjusted =
input.with(PlainDate.WEEKDAY_IN_MONTH.setToThird(weekday));
boolean isThirdSundayInMonth = input.equals(adjusted);

The canonical library for all things date and time related is Joda Time. Adopt that and purge all the standard java classes like Date, Calendar, etc.
It will make your life much better.
As for "How do I use joda-time to find the third Thursday of the month", there's a stackoverflow answer for that already. I'd suggest using the code that the question asker posted and then the question "is it now the third Thursday of the month" is answered by:
LocalDate today = new LocalDate();
if (today.equals(calcDayOfWeekOfMonth(DateTimeConstants.THURSDAY, 3, today))) {
// do special third-Thursday processing here
}

How should I properly compare two dates?

Having some trouble implementing this simple task.
Basically I want to compare two dates(some older date vs new date). I want to know if the older date is more than x months old and y days old.
int monthDiff = new Date().getMonth() - detail.getCdLastUpdate().getMonth();
int dayDiff = new Date().getDay() - detail.getCdLastUpdate().getMonth();
System.out.println("\tthe last update date and new date month diff is --> " + monthDiff);
System.out.println("\tthe last update date and new date day diff is --> " + dayDiff);
If older date is 2012-09-21 00:00:00.0, currently, it will return negative numbers. I need to find out if the older date is EXACTLY 6 months and 4 days before new Date(). I'm thinking of using absolute values of both but just can't brain today.
Edit: I know about joda but I cannot use it. I must use Java JDK.
Edit 2: I'll try out the methods listed, if all failed I'll use Joda.

JDK dates have before and after methods, returning boolean, to accomplish your task:
Date now = new Date();
Calendar compareTo = Calendar.getInstance();
compareTo.add(Calendar.MONTH, -6);
compareTo.add(Calendar.DATE, -4);
if (compareTo.getTime().before(now)) {
// after
} else {
// before or equal
}

The best way I can think of is to use Joda-Time library. Example from their site:
Days d = Days.daysBetween(startDate, endDate);
int days = d.getDays();
Or number of months:
Months m = Months.monthsBetween(startDate, endDate)
int months = m.getMonths();
where:
DateTime startDate = new DateTime(/*jdk Date*/);
DateTime endDate = new DateTime(/*jdk Date*/);

Sigh, it is up to me to add the inevitable "use JodaTime" answer.
JodaTime gives you specific data types for all significant time distances.
Date yourReferenceDate = // get date from somewhere
int months = Months.monthsBetween(
new DateTime(yourReferenceDate),
DateTime.now()
).getMonths();

Android: compare calendar dates

In my app I´m saving when I last updated some data from my server.
Therefore I used:
long time = Calendar.getInstance().getTimeInMillis();
Now I want that the data is updated twice a year at 03.03 and 08.08.
How can I check wheater one of these two date boarders were crossed since last update?

Change them to time in mseconds and compare:
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
c.set(Calendar.MONTH, Calendar.MARCH);
c.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 3);
long time2= c.getTimeInMillis();
c.set(Calendar.MONTH, Calendar.AUGUST);
c.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 8);
long time3= c.getTimeInMillis();
if(time>time2){
//Logic
if(time>time3){
//Logic
}
}

There is something very important which took me a while to figure it out and can be very helpful to people out there, if you are looking for an answer to any of the following questions this is for you:
Why is my date not showing correctly?
Why even when I set the time manually it is not showing right?
Why is the month and the year showing one day less than the one that I set?
For some reason Java sorts the months values like an array, what I mean is that for Java January is 0 and DECEMBER is 11. Same happens for the year, if you set December as month 12 and year as 2012, and then try to do a "system.out.println" of the month and the year, it will show my month as January and the year as 2013!!
so what should you do?
Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar();
cal.set(2012, 11, 26); // the date I want to input is 26/12/2012 (for Java, 11 is December!)
NOW WHAT IS THE CORRECT WAY TO GET THAT DATE TO SEE IT ON THE SCREEN?
if you try to "system.out.println of yourCalendar.DATE, yourCalendar.MONTH and yourCalendar.YEAR," THAT WILL NOT SHOW YOU THE RIGHT DATE!!!!
If you want to display the dates you need to do the following:
System.out.println (calact.get (calact.DATE));
// displays day
System.out.println (calact.get (calact.MONTH)+1);
//add 1 remember it saves values from 0-11
System.out.println (calact.get (calact.YEAR));
// displays year
NOW IF YOU ARE HANDLING STRINGS THAT REPRESENT DATES, OR....
IF YOU NEED TO COMPARE DATES BETWEEN RANGES , LET'S SAY YOU NEED TO KNOW IF DATE "A" WILL TAKE PLACE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS....THIS....IS.....FOR....YOU!!
In my case I was working with a string that had format "15/07/2012", I needed to know if that date would take place within the next 10 days, therefore I had to do the following:
1 get that string date and transform it into a calendar ( StringTokenizer was used here )
this is very simple
StringTokenizer tokens=new StringTokenizer(myDateAsString, "/");
do nextToken and before returning the day, parse it as integer and return it.
Remember for month before returning substract 1.
I will post the code for the first you create the other two:
public int getMeD(String fecha){
int miDia = 0;
String tmd = "0";
StringTokenizer tokens=new StringTokenizer(fecha, "/");
tmd = tokens.nextToken();
miDia = Integer.parseInt(tmd);
return miDia;
}
2 THEN YOU CREATE THE CALENDAR
Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar(); // calendar
String myDateAsString= "15/07/2012"; // my Date As String
int MYcald = getMeD(myDateAsString); // returns integer
int MYcalm = getMeM(myDateAsString); // returns integer
int MYcaly = getMeY(myDateAsString); // returns integer
cal.set(MYcaly, MYcalm, MYcald);
3 get my current date (TODAY)
Calendar curr = new GregorianCalendar(); // current cal
calact.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
4 create temporal calendar to go into the future 10 days
Calendar caltemp = new GregorianCalendar(); // temp cal
caltemp.setTimeInMillis(System.currentTimeMillis());
caltemp.add(calact.DAY_OF_MONTH, 10); // we move into the future
5 compare among all 3 calendars
here basically you ask if the date that I was given is for sure taking place in the future AND (&&) IF the given date is also less than the future date which had 10 days more, then please show me "EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE FOR SURE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS!!" OTHERWISE SHOW ME:
"EVENT WILL NOT TAKE PLACE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS".
if((cal.getTimeInMillis() > curr.getTimeInMillis()) && (cal.getTimeInMillis()< curr.getTimeInMillis()))
{ System.out.println ("EVENT WILL TAKE PLACE FOR SURE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS!!");}
else
{ System.out.println ("EVENT WILL *NOT* TAKE PLACE WITHIN THE NEXT 10 DAYS");}
ALRIGHT GUYS AND GIRLS I HOPE THAT HELPS. A BIG HUG FOR YOU ALL AND GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PROJECTS!
PEACE.
YOAV.

If the comparison should involve only the year, month and day then you can use this method for check if c1 is before c2. Ugly, but works.
public static boolean before(Calendar c1, Calendar c2){
int c1Year = c1.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int c1Month = c1.get(Calendar.MONTH);
int c1Day = c1.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
int c2Year = c2.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int c2Month = c2.get(Calendar.MONTH);
int c2Day = c2.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
if(c1Year<c2Year){
return true;
}else if (c1Year>c2Year){
return false;
}else{
if(c1Month>c2Month){
return false;
}else if(c1Month<c2Month){
return true;
}else{
return c1Day<c2Day;
}
}
}

used compareTo method ..and this returns integer value .if returns -ve the days before in current date else return +ve the days after come current date

How to write a method that returns number (int) of days from provided day to the todays date?

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.

Stuck on testing a method

I am doing some table testing in word, all of the JUnits are done but i am having trouble testing a method - as i am the tester in this project and not the coder i am struggling to understand what is actually correct or not
public GregorianCalendar calcDeparture(String date, String time) {
String[] calDate = new String[3];
String[] calTime = new String[2];
calDate[0] = (date.substring(0, 2)); //Dat
calDate[1] = date.substring(2, 5); //Month
calDate[2] = "20" + date.substring(5, 7); //Year
calTime = time.split(":");
//Adds the year, month and day and hour and minute from the above splited arrays
int year = Integer.parseInt(calDate[2]);
int month = monthToInt(calDate[1]);
int day = Integer.parseInt(calDate[0]);
int hour = Integer.parseInt(calTime[0]);
int minute = Integer.parseInt(calTime[1]);
GregorianCalendar newDeparture = new GregorianCalendar(year, month, day, hour, minute, 0);
return newDeparture;
}
This is the method I am testing. If i pass it the values of "01AUG07 "14:40" i get a gregorian calander back but i don't know if the values inside of it are correct so i can't tick the passed or failed box. What i get back in the BlueJ object inspector is a load of really long numbers :D
can i get some help please
thanks

I suggest to check all the relevant values of the calendar at the same time using a SimpleDateFormat() like so:
SimpleDateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat ("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm");
String s = f.format (calcDeparture(yourDate, yourTime));
assertEquals ("2007-08-01 14:40", s);
Now call your method with odd dates (like 31.12.2999, August 45th, February 29th 2001, etc) to see what you get and how you should handle errors.

BlueJ? Consider using an IDE, not an educational software
The method is terribly written - working with dates using a strictly-formatted String is wrong.
Calendar (which is the supertype of GregorianCalendar) has the get method, which you can use like:
Calendar calendar = calcDeparture(yourDate, yourTime);
int day = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
int moth = calendar.get(Calendar.MONTH); //this is 0 based;
and so on

Why can you just not use the standard getters to check the individual fields, along the lines of:
Calendar cal = calcDeparture("01AUG07", "14:40");
if (cal.get(Calendar.YEAR) != 2007) { ... }