How to subtract n days from current date in java? [duplicate]

Question

I want to subtract n days from the current date in Java.

How do I do that?

Answer 1

You don't have to use Calendar. You can just play with timestamps :

Date d = initDate();//intialize your date to any date  Date dateBefore = new Date(d.getTime() - n * 24 * 3600 * 1000 l ); //Subtract n days    

UPDATE DO NOT FORGET TO ADD "l" for long by the end of 1000.

Please consider the below WARNING:

Adding 1000*60*60*24 milliseconds to a java date will once in a great while add zero days or two days to the original date in the circumstances of leap seconds, daylight savings time and the like. If you need to be 100% certain only one day is added, this solution is not the one to use.

Answer 2

this will subtract ten days of the current date (before Java 8):

int x = -10; Calendar cal = GregorianCalendar.getInstance(); cal.add( Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR, x); Date tenDaysAgo = cal.getTime(); 

If you're using Java 8 you can make use of the new Date & Time API (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/java/jf14-date-time-2125367.html):

LocalDate tenDaysAgo = LocalDate.now().minusDays(10); 

For converting the new to the old types and vice versa see: Converting between java.time.LocalDateTime and java.util.Date