How to subtract X days from a date using Java calendar

Question

Anyone know a simple way using Java calendar to subtract X days from a date   I have not been able to find any function which allows me to directly subtract X days from a date in Java  Can someone point me to the right direction

User · Accepted Answer

Taken from the docs here       Adds or subtracts the specified amount of time to the given calendar field  based on the calendar s rules  For example  to subtract 5 days from the current time of the calendar  you can achieve it by calling   Calendar calendar   Calendar getInstance       this would default to now calendar add Calendar DAY OF MONTH  -5

User · Answer

You could use the add method and pass it a negative number   However  you could also write a simpler method that doesn t use the Calendar class such as the following  public static void addDays Date d  int days        d setTime  d getTime      long days 1000 60 60 24        This gets the timestamp value of the date  milliseconds since the epoch  and adds the proper number of milliseconds   You could pass a negative integer for the days parameter to do subtraction   This would be simpler than the  proper  calendar solution   public static void addDays Date d  int days        Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        c setTime d       c add Calendar DATE  days       d setTime  c getTime   getTime          Note that both of these solutions change the Date object passed as a parameter rather than returning a completely new Date   Either function could be easily changed to do it the other way if desired

User · Answer

Someone recommended Joda Time so - I have been using this CalendarDate class  http   calendardate sourceforge net   It s a somewhat competing project to Joda Time  but much more basic at only 2 classes   It s very handy and worked great for what I needed since I didn t want to use a package bigger than my project   Unlike the Java counterparts  its smallest unit is the day so it is really a date  not having it down to milliseconds or something    Once you create the date  all you do to subtract is something like myDay addDays -5  to go back 5 days   You can use it to find the day of the week and things like that  Another example   CalendarDate someDay   new CalendarDate 2011  10  27   CalendarDate someLaterDay   today addDays 77     And     print 4 previous days of the week and today String dayLabel       CalendarDate today   new CalendarDate TimeZone getDefault     CalendarDateFormat cdf   new CalendarDateFormat  EEE     day of the week like  Mon  CalendarDate currDay   today addDays -4   while  currDay isAfter today         dayLabel   cdf format currDay       if  currDay equals today           dayLabel    Today    print  Today  instead of the weekday name     System out println dayLabel       currDay   currDay addDays 1    go to next day

User · Answer

You could use the add method and pass it a negative number   However  you could also write a simpler method that doesn t use the Calendar class such as the following  public static void addDays Date d  int days        d setTime  d getTime      long days 1000 60 60 24        This gets the timestamp value of the date  milliseconds since the epoch  and adds the proper number of milliseconds   You could pass a negative integer for the days parameter to do subtraction   This would be simpler than the  proper  calendar solution   public static void addDays Date d  int days        Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        c setTime d       c add Calendar DATE  days       d setTime  c getTime   getTime          Note that both of these solutions change the Date object passed as a parameter rather than returning a completely new Date   Either function could be easily changed to do it the other way if desired

User · Answer

int x   -1  Calendar cal        cal add Calendar DATE  x    See java util Calendar add int int

User · Answer

int x   -1  Calendar cal        cal add Calendar DATE  x    See java util Calendar add int int

User · Answer

You could use the add method and pass it a negative number   However  you could also write a simpler method that doesn t use the Calendar class such as the following  public static void addDays Date d  int days        d setTime  d getTime      long days 1000 60 60 24        This gets the timestamp value of the date  milliseconds since the epoch  and adds the proper number of milliseconds   You could pass a negative integer for the days parameter to do subtraction   This would be simpler than the  proper  calendar solution   public static void addDays Date d  int days        Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        c setTime d       c add Calendar DATE  days       d setTime  c getTime   getTime          Note that both of these solutions change the Date object passed as a parameter rather than returning a completely new Date   Either function could be easily changed to do it the other way if desired

User · Answer

Anson s answer will work fine for the simple case  but if you re going to do any more complex date calculations I d recommend checking out Joda Time   It will make your life much easier   FYI in Joda Time you could do  DateTime dt   new DateTime    DateTime fiveDaysEarlier   dt minusDays 5

User · Answer

Instead of writing my own addDays as suggested by Eli  I would prefer to use DateUtils from Apache  It is handy especially when you have to use it multiple places in your project   The API says    addDays Date date  int amount    Adds a number of days to a date returning a new object   Note that it returns a new Date object and does not make changes to the previous one itself

User · Answer

Eli Courtwright second solution is wrong  it should be   Calendar c   Calendar getInstance    c setTime date   c add Calendar DATE  -days   date setTime c getTime   getTime

User · Answer

Someone recommended Joda Time so - I have been using this CalendarDate class  http   calendardate sourceforge net   It s a somewhat competing project to Joda Time  but much more basic at only 2 classes   It s very handy and worked great for what I needed since I didn t want to use a package bigger than my project   Unlike the Java counterparts  its smallest unit is the day so it is really a date  not having it down to milliseconds or something    Once you create the date  all you do to subtract is something like myDay addDays -5  to go back 5 days   You can use it to find the day of the week and things like that  Another example   CalendarDate someDay   new CalendarDate 2011  10  27   CalendarDate someLaterDay   today addDays 77     And     print 4 previous days of the week and today String dayLabel       CalendarDate today   new CalendarDate TimeZone getDefault     CalendarDateFormat cdf   new CalendarDateFormat  EEE     day of the week like  Mon  CalendarDate currDay   today addDays -4   while  currDay isAfter today         dayLabel   cdf format currDay       if  currDay equals today           dayLabel    Today    print  Today  instead of the weekday name     System out println dayLabel       currDay   currDay addDays 1    go to next day

User · Answer

int x   -1  Calendar cal        cal add Calendar DATE  x    See java util Calendar add int int

User · Answer

I believe a clean and nice way to perform subtraction or addition of any time unit  months  days  hours  minutes  seconds       can be achieved using the java time Instant class   Example for subtracting 5 days from the current time and getting the result as Date   new Date Instant now   minus 5  ChronoUnit DAYS  toEpochMilli       Another example for subtracting 1 hour and adding 15 minutes   Date from Instant now   minus Duration ofHours 1   plus Duration ofMinutes 15       If you need more accuracy  Instance measures up to nanoseconds  Methods manipulating nanosecond part   minusNano   plusNano   getNano     Also  keep in mind  that Date is not as accurate as Instant

User · Answer

You could use the add method and pass it a negative number   However  you could also write a simpler method that doesn t use the Calendar class such as the following  public static void addDays Date d  int days        d setTime  d getTime      long days 1000 60 60 24        This gets the timestamp value of the date  milliseconds since the epoch  and adds the proper number of milliseconds   You could pass a negative integer for the days parameter to do subtraction   This would be simpler than the  proper  calendar solution   public static void addDays Date d  int days        Calendar c   Calendar getInstance        c setTime d       c add Calendar DATE  days       d setTime  c getTime   getTime          Note that both of these solutions change the Date object passed as a parameter rather than returning a completely new Date   Either function could be easily changed to do it the other way if desired

User · Answer

It can be done easily by the following  Calendar calendar   Calendar getInstance               from current time         long curTimeInMills   new Date   getTime            long timeInMills   curTimeInMills - 5    24 60 60 1000          enter code here subtract like 5 days         calendar setTimeInMillis timeInMills           System out println calendar getTime                 from specific time like  08 05 2015          calendar set Calendar DAY OF MONTH  8           calendar set Calendar MONTH   5-1            calendar set Calendar YEAR  2015           timeInMills   calendar getTimeInMillis   - 5    24 60 60 1000           calendar setTimeInMillis timeInMills           System out println calendar getTime

User · Answer

Anson s answer will work fine for the simple case  but if you re going to do any more complex date calculations I d recommend checking out Joda Time   It will make your life much easier   FYI in Joda Time you could do  DateTime dt   new DateTime    DateTime fiveDaysEarlier   dt minusDays 5

User · Answer

tl dr  LocalDate now   minusDays  10     Better to specify time zone   LocalDate now  ZoneId of   America Montreal      minusDays  10     Details  The old date-time classes bundled with early versions of Java  such as java util Date  Calendar  have proven to be troublesome  confusing  and flawed  Avoid them   java time  Java 8 and later supplants those old classes with the new java time framework  See Tutorial  Defined by JSR 310  inspired by Joda-Time  and extended by theThreeTen-Extra project  The ThreeTen-Backport project back-ports the classes to Java 6  amp  7  the ThreeTenABP project to Android   The Question is vague  not clear if it asks for a date-only or a date-time   LocalDate  For a date-only  without time-of-day  use the LocalDate class  Note that a time zone in crucial in determining a date such as  today    LocalDate today   LocalDate now  ZoneId of   America Montreal       LocalDate tenDaysAgo   today minusDays  10      ZonedDateTime  If you meant a date-time  then use the Instant class to get a moment on the timeline in UTC  From there  adjust to a time zone to get a ZonedDateTime object   Instant now   Instant now        UTC  ZoneId zoneId   ZoneId of   America Montreal     ZonedDateTime zdt   ZonedDateTime ofInstant  instant   zoneId    ZonedDateTime tenDaysAgo   zdt minusDays  10          About java time  The java time framework is built into Java 8 and later  These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java util Date  Calendar   amp  SimpleDateFormat   The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   To learn more  see the Oracle Tutorial  And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations  Specification is JSR 310   You may exchange java time objects directly with your database  Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4 2 or later  No need for strings  no need for java sql   classes   Where to obtain the java time classes     Java SE 8  Java SE 9  Java SE 10  and later   Built-in   Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation  Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes   Java SE 6 and Java SE 7   Much of the java time functionality is back-ported to Java 6  amp  7 in ThreeTen-Backport   Android   Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java time classes  For earlier Android   lt 26   the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport  mentioned above   See How to use ThreeTenABP        The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java time with additional classes  This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java time  You may find some useful classes here such as Interval  YearWeek  YearQuarter  and more

User · Answer

Eli Courtwright second solution is wrong  it should be   Calendar c   Calendar getInstance    c setTime date   c add Calendar DATE  -days   date setTime c getTime   getTime

User · Answer

Anson s answer will work fine for the simple case  but if you re going to do any more complex date calculations I d recommend checking out Joda Time   It will make your life much easier   FYI in Joda Time you could do  DateTime dt   new DateTime    DateTime fiveDaysEarlier   dt minusDays 5

User · Answer

It can be done easily by the following  Calendar calendar   Calendar getInstance               from current time         long curTimeInMills   new Date   getTime            long timeInMills   curTimeInMills - 5    24 60 60 1000          enter code here subtract like 5 days         calendar setTimeInMillis timeInMills           System out println calendar getTime                 from specific time like  08 05 2015          calendar set Calendar DAY OF MONTH  8           calendar set Calendar MONTH   5-1            calendar set Calendar YEAR  2015           timeInMills   calendar getTimeInMillis   - 5    24 60 60 1000           calendar setTimeInMillis timeInMills           System out println calendar getTime

User · Answer

int x   -1  Calendar cal        cal add Calendar DATE  x    See java util Calendar add int int

User · Answer

tl dr  LocalDate now   minusDays  10     Better to specify time zone   LocalDate now  ZoneId of   America Montreal      minusDays  10     Details  The old date-time classes bundled with early versions of Java  such as java util Date  Calendar  have proven to be troublesome  confusing  and flawed  Avoid them   java time  Java 8 and later supplants those old classes with the new java time framework  See Tutorial  Defined by JSR 310  inspired by Joda-Time  and extended by theThreeTen-Extra project  The ThreeTen-Backport project back-ports the classes to Java 6  amp  7  the ThreeTenABP project to Android   The Question is vague  not clear if it asks for a date-only or a date-time   LocalDate  For a date-only  without time-of-day  use the LocalDate class  Note that a time zone in crucial in determining a date such as  today    LocalDate today   LocalDate now  ZoneId of   America Montreal       LocalDate tenDaysAgo   today minusDays  10      ZonedDateTime  If you meant a date-time  then use the Instant class to get a moment on the timeline in UTC  From there  adjust to a time zone to get a ZonedDateTime object   Instant now   Instant now        UTC  ZoneId zoneId   ZoneId of   America Montreal     ZonedDateTime zdt   ZonedDateTime ofInstant  instant   zoneId    ZonedDateTime tenDaysAgo   zdt minusDays  10          About java time  The java time framework is built into Java 8 and later  These classes supplant the troublesome old legacy date-time classes such as java util Date  Calendar   amp  SimpleDateFormat   The Joda-Time project  now in maintenance mode  advises migration to the java time classes   To learn more  see the Oracle Tutorial  And search Stack Overflow for many examples and explanations  Specification is JSR 310   You may exchange java time objects directly with your database  Use a JDBC driver compliant with JDBC 4 2 or later  No need for strings  no need for java sql   classes   Where to obtain the java time classes     Java SE 8  Java SE 9  Java SE 10  and later   Built-in   Part of the standard Java API with a bundled implementation  Java 9 adds some minor features and fixes   Java SE 6 and Java SE 7   Much of the java time functionality is back-ported to Java 6  amp  7 in ThreeTen-Backport   Android   Later versions of Android bundle implementations of the java time classes  For earlier Android   lt 26   the ThreeTenABP project adapts ThreeTen-Backport  mentioned above   See How to use ThreeTenABP        The ThreeTen-Extra project extends java time with additional classes  This project is a proving ground for possible future additions to java time  You may find some useful classes here such as Interval  YearWeek  YearQuarter  and more

User · Answer

I believe a clean and nice way to perform subtraction or addition of any time unit  months  days  hours  minutes  seconds       can be achieved using the java time Instant class   Example for subtracting 5 days from the current time and getting the result as Date   new Date Instant now   minus 5  ChronoUnit DAYS  toEpochMilli       Another example for subtracting 1 hour and adding 15 minutes   Date from Instant now   minus Duration ofHours 1   plus Duration ofMinutes 15       If you need more accuracy  Instance measures up to nanoseconds  Methods manipulating nanosecond part   minusNano   plusNano   getNano     Also  keep in mind  that Date is not as accurate as Instant

User · Answer

Instead of writing my own addDays as suggested by Eli  I would prefer to use DateUtils from Apache  It is handy especially when you have to use it multiple places in your project   The API says    addDays Date date  int amount    Adds a number of days to a date returning a new object   Note that it returns a new Date object and does not make changes to the previous one itself

User · Answer

Anson s answer will work fine for the simple case  but if you re going to do any more complex date calculations I d recommend checking out Joda Time   It will make your life much easier   FYI in Joda Time you could do  DateTime dt   new DateTime    DateTime fiveDaysEarlier   dt minusDays 5

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