Comparing dates for equality using API

Question

Hello,
I was wondering if you could help me understand if it is possible for me to compare two dates for equality.
I am looking to only compare the date and the month. So, if I am checking "today" with another objects Date for equality, it obviously fails because the compareTo and the equals method of both Date and Calendar, I think, are comparing even the timestamps.
here is something I wrote for testing, which obviously is of no use
Calendar today = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar later = Calendar.getInstance();
later.set(Calendar.HOUR, 03);
System.out.println(today.getTime());
System.out.println(later.getTime());
if(today.equals(later)){
   System.out.println("BIG BANG");
if(today.compareTo(later)<0)
   System.out.println("Today Date is Lesser than my Date");
else if(today.compareTo(later)>0)
   System.out.println("Today Date is Greater than my date");
else
   System.out.println("Both Dates are equal");   
Date today = new Date();
Date myDate = new Date();
myDate.setHours(23);
System.out.println(today);
System.out.println(myDate);
if(today.compareTo(myDate)<0)
   System.out.println("Today Date is Lesser than my Date");
else if(today.compareTo(myDate)>0)
   System.out.println("Today Date is Greater than my date");
else
   System.out.println("Both Dates are equal");   
   So is then the only way left, is using the simple date formatter and going about things ?

Answer 1

package forums;
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.text.DateFormat;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
public class CalendarExample
  private static final DateFormat DF = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Calendar today = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar later = Calendar.getInstance();
    later.set(Calendar.HOUR, 3);
    System.out.println("today="+DF.format(today.getTime()));
    System.out.println("later="+DF.format(later.getTime()));
    System.out.println("isSameDayAndMonth(today, later) = "+isSameDayAndMonth(today, later));
    System.out.println("\n");
    Calendar tomorrow = Calendar.getInstance();
    tomorrow.set(Calendar.DATE, tomorrow.get(Calendar.DATE)+1);
    System.out.println("today="+DF.format(today.getTime()));
    System.out.println("tomorrow="+DF.format(tomorrow.getTime()));
    System.out.println("isSameDayAndMonth(today, tomorrow) = "+isSameDayAndMonth(today, tomorrow));
    System.out.println("\n");
  public static boolean isSameDayAndMonth(Calendar a, Calendar b) {
    return a.get(Calendar.DATE) == b.get(Calendar.DATE)
        && a.get(Calendar.MONTH) == b.get(Calendar.MONTH)
}You're welcome... Javas standard date libraries leave a lot be desired. I recommend you try Joda, which is [a long standing JSR, which has never gotten up|http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=44248].