Java Calendar compareTo() Method

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Description

The Java Calendar compareTo() method compares the time values (millisecond offsets) between the Calendar object and anotherCalendar object.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.util.Calendar.compareTo() method

public int compareTo(Calendar anotherCalendar)

Parameters

anotherCalendar − the Calendar object to be compared.

Return Value

The method returns 0 if the time represented by the argument is equal to the time represented by this Calendar object; or a value less than 0 if the time of this Calendar is before the time represented by the argument; or a value greater than 0 if the time of this Calendar is after the time represented.

Exception

• NullPointerException − if the specified Calendar is null.

• IllegalArgumentException − if the time value of the specified Calendar object can't be obtained

Comparing Different Dated GregorianCalendar instances Example

The following example shows the usage of Java Calendar compareTo() method. We're creating two GregorianCalendar instance of different dates. We're comparing them using compareTo() method and then printing the result.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;

public class CalendarDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // create two calendar at the different dates
      Calendar cal1 = new GregorianCalendar(2015, 8, 15);
      Calendar cal2 = new GregorianCalendar(2008, 1, 02);

      // compare the two calendar objects.
      System.out.println("The result is : " + cal1.compareTo(cal2));
   }
}

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

The result is : 1

Comparing Same Dated GregorianCalendar instances Example

The following example shows the usage of Java Calendar compareTo() method. We're creating two GregorianCalendar instance of same date. We're comparing them using compareTo() method and then printing the result.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;

public class CalendarDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // create two calendar at the different dates
      Calendar cal1 = new GregorianCalendar(2015, 8, 15);
      Calendar cal2 = new GregorianCalendar(2015, 8, 15);

      // compare the two calendar objects.
      System.out.println("The result is : " + cal1.compareTo(cal2));
   }
}

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

The result is : 0

Comparing Current Dated GregorianCalendar instances Example

The following example shows the usage of Java Calendar compareTo() method. We're creating two Calendar instance of current date and then we're comparing them using compareTo() method and then printing the result. As there is a very small difference of milliseconds, the result will come as false.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.util.Calendar;

public class CalendarDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {

      // create two calendar at the different dates
      Calendar cal1 = Calendar.getInstance();
      Calendar cal2 = Calendar.getInstance();
	  
      // compare the two calendar objects for equality.
      System.out.println("The result is : " + cal1.compareTo(cal2));
   }
}

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

The result is : -1