Does this class have a method that will compare incoming strings or something I missed in the DateFormat (Java Platform SE 7 )?
The Date class implements the Comparable interface (see it's compareTo method), the DateFormat class is for formatting and parsing - I recommend studying the API for these classes if you intend to use them as the API can answer many of your questions.
I have to use my own queue I am not allowed to use the java class queue but I already have a circular queue that I build earlier that is going to handle dequeuing and whatnot, would you like to see it?
Do you have a question about this class in particular?