how to check if one date is after another in java?

Question

I am taking in two dates as command line arguments and want to check if the first one is after the second date. the format of the date it "dd/MM/yyy". Example: java dateCheck 01/01/2014 15/03/2014 also i will need to check if a third date hardcoded into the program is before the second date.

Answer 1

try {
    System.out.println("Enter first date : (dd/MM/yyyy)");
    BufferedReader bufferRead = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
    SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
    Date date1 = sdf.parse(bufferRead.readLine());
    System.out.println("Enter second date : (dd/MM/yyyy)");
    Date date2 = sdf.parse(bufferRead.readLine());
    System.out.println(date1 + "\n" + date2);
    if (date1.after(date2)) {
        System.out.println("Date1 is after Date2");
    } else {
            System.out.println("Date2 is after Date1");
    }
} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}