Thread: Comparing Two Dates

Ok, so I'm ripping my hair out over this.

I have two 3 GregorianCalendar objects. Due to reasons unknown, the .after() and .before() methods are not working correctly all the time, so I'm having to make a method my own to get some sort of consistency.

Basically, I'm just wanting to check if a Date is between (inclusively) a range of dates.

After trying a bunch of different things (all with complete failure), I tried to make the most concise set of conditional statements I could. But, it still doesn't work. Can anyone find the logic problem in this?

public boolean withinTimeFrame(GregorianCalendar g)
	{
		int year = g.get(GregorianCalendar.YEAR);
		int month = g.get(GregorianCalendar.MONTH);
		int day = g.get(GregorianCalendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
		int yearS = StartDate.get(GregorianCalendar.YEAR);
		int monthS = StartDate.get(GregorianCalendar.MONTH);
		int dayS = StartDate.get(GregorianCalendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
		int yearE = EndDate.get(GregorianCalendar.YEAR);
		int monthE = EndDate.get(GregorianCalendar.MONTH);
		int dayE = EndDate.get(GregorianCalendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
 
		if((year==yearS && month==monthS && day==dayS)||(year==yearE && month==monthE && day==dayE))
			return true;
		if(year>yearS)
		{
			if(year<yearE)
				return true;
			else if(year==yearE)
			{
				if(month<monthE)
					return true;
				else if(month==monthE)
				{
					if(day<=dayE)
						return true;
					else
						return false;
				}
				else
					return false;
			}
			else
				return false;
		}
		else if(year==yearS)
		{
			if(year<yearE)
				return true;
			else if(year==yearE)
			{
				if(month>monthS)
				{
					if(month<monthE)
						return true;
					else if(month==monthE)
					{
						if(day<=dayE)
							return true;
						else
							return false;
					}
					else
						return false;
				}
				else if(month==monthS)
				{
					if(day>dayS)
					{
						if(month<monthE)
							return true;
						else if(month==monthE)
						{
							if(day<=dayE)
								return true;
							else
								return false;
						}
						else
							return false;
					}
					else if(day==dayS)
						return true;
					else
						return false;
				}
				else
					return false;
			}
			else
				return false;
		}
		else
			return false;
	}

For example, if I have the following 2 inputs:
Input 1:
StartDate = September 7, 2011
EndDate = November 7, 2011
g = October 6, 2011
Input 2:
StartDate = September 7, 2011
EndDate = November 7, 2011
g = November 4, 2011


So, if g is between (inclusively) StartDate and EndDate, the method should return true. Otherwise, it should return false.

At the moment, I know at least one of these (if not both) is returning true. I'm attempting to isolate the problem.


EDIT:
It is returning false for both inputs.

As Norm suggested, just get the time in milliseconds (Calendar.getTimeInMillis() - the Date class has a similar method) and compare the returned long value. Seems a much easier alternative

This was actually my fault, not the code's. I was checking one direction, but not the other.

For example, if you had two date ranges:
Oct 5, 2011 to Dec 10, 2011
Nov 1, 2011 to Nov 10, 2011

The first would not conflict with the second, but the second would conflict with the first. I needed the second to conflict with the first AND the first to conflict with the second. I have it working as far as I know.