Java Date getTime function returns negative value

Question

I'm converting a String to a date, then converting it integer value to make the comparison between dates easier. Here's my code:

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz",Locale.US);
lastModified = "Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:38:26 GMT";
Date date = format.parse(lastModified);
lastModifiedDate = (int) date.getTime();

Then, I printer lastModifiedDate and it was (-974253872), I know it should be the time in milliseconds from Jan 1, 1970, but it's negative value, so what's happening?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

date.getTime() returns a long. If you cast it to int, it may become negative due to overflow.

If you change your code to :

long lastModifiedDate =  date.getTime();

You'll get a positive value - 1317580706000 - which can't fit in an int variable.