How to compare date with thr current date

Question

Hi,
I have an inout string which is in date format(dd/mm/yyyy hh:mm:ss) .
what i need to do is comparing this date string with the current date. if my input string is less than current date , then display error message..
how to do this?
regards

Answer 1

Excellent suggestions from all of you people!
finally i got the solution
code is:
import java.util.*;
import java.text.*;
public class TestDate {
  public static void main(String args[]){
    TestDate a = new TestDate();
  TestDate() {
    String DATE_FORMAT = "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss";
     Date today = new Date();
     Date myDate=null;
    java.text.SimpleDateFormat sdf =
         new java.text.SimpleDateFormat(DATE_FORMAT);
     try{
     myDate = sdf.parse("01/06/2006 00:00:00");
     }catch(Exception e) {System.out.println(e);}
    Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();
    c1.setTime(today);
    c2.setTime(myDate1);
    System.out.print(sdf.format(today));
    System.out.print(sdf.format(c1.getTime()));
    if (c1.before(c2)) {
       System.out.print(" is before ");
    if (c1.after(c2)) {
       System.out.print(" is after ");    
    if (c1.equals(c2)) {
       System.out.print(" same as ");    
System.out.print(sdf.format(c2.getTime()));
  }