Develop Reference

Query data between two dates

I need to get data between two dates from the Mongodb data that hosted in online server. I tried this code and it's working good in my Localhost (local data & live data). But when I uploaded the app in online and it's not working properly in Live.
The results are not accurate in live site. It fetches some records before and after the specified dates. For example, I give the dates 01-02-2018 and 28-02-2018, and the results are coming with records of 31-01-2018 and 01-03-2018.
I think the problem is dates are stored in UTC timezone ( 2018-02-15T23:33:30.000Z ).
Code:
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
Date fromDate = format.parse(from + " 00:00:00");
Date toDate = format.parse(to + " 23:59:59");
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(order.getOrderDate());
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
sdf.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Asia/Kolkata"));
String strDate = sdf.format(cal.getTime());
Date orderDate = sdf.parse(strDate);
for(Order order : orders){
if(orderDate.after(fromDate) || orderDate.equals(fromDate) && orderDate.before(toDate) || orderDate.equals(toDate)){
//do something
}
}

java.util.Date doesn't have a timezone in it, so there's no point in parsing and formatting the order date. Formatting converts it to a String and parsing converts it back to a Date, which is pointless, because the order date is already a Date object.
You must set the timezone in the first formatter (the format variable), and then parse the from and to dates: they'll be set to the respective dates and times at Kolkata's timezone - in this case it's valid, because you have strings and want to convert them to dates.
Then you make your comparison using extra parenthesis to avoid any ambiguities (as pointed in the comments).
And there's no point in setting the Date to a Calendar, just to get it back later - the Calendar instance has no purpose in your code.
And the call to getOrderDate shouldn't be inside the for loop?
The full code will be like this:
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MM-yyyy HH:mm:ss");
// from and to dates are from Kolkata's timezone, so the formatter must know that
format.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Asia/Kolkata"));
// dates will be equivalent to this date and time in Kolkata, although
// the date itself doesn't store the timezone in it
Date fromDate = format.parse(from + " 00:00:00");
Date toDate = format.parse(to + " 23:59:59");
for(Order order : orders){
Date orderDate = order.getOrderDate();
// note the extra parenthesis, they make all the difference
if( (orderDate.after(fromDate) || orderDate.equals(fromDate)) &&
(orderDate.before(toDate) || orderDate.equals(toDate)) ) {
....
}
}
If you have Java >= 8, it's better to use the java.time API:
DateTimeFormatter fmt = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("dd-MM-yyyy");
ZoneId zone = ZoneId.of("Asia/Kolkata");
ZonedDateTime fromDate = LocalDate
// parse "from" string
.parse(from, fmt)
// start of day at Kolkata timezone
.atStartOfDay(zone);
ZonedDateTime toDate = LocalDate
// parse "to" string
.parse(to, fmt)
// get start of next day
.plusDays(1).atStartOfDay(zone);
// convert the Date to ZonedDateTime
for (Order order : orders) {
ZonedDateTime orderDate = order.getOrderDate().toInstant().atZone(zone);
if ((orderDate.isAfter(fromDate) || orderDate.isEqual(fromDate)) && (orderDate.isBefore(toDate))) {
...
}
}
It's a different code because this API introduces new types and concepts, but it's quite a improvement from the previous API (Date and Calendar are messy, buggy and outdated).
Take some time to study this API, it's totally worth it: https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/datetime/

Java Calendar and Time UTC to BST

I get a string in the format yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm which represents a Date and Time in UTC.
Next step is to put this into a Calendar (with TimeZone UTC).
In addition need to also create a separate Calendar which has converted the UTC to "Europe/London" timeZone (GMT/BST).
After that I need to be able to detect if the "Europe/London" calendar has a DST (Day Light Savings Offset).
The code below will show you how far I have got and it runs ok on a UK based computer whose default System Timezone is GMT. However when I run it on a pc whose timezone is UTC it fails. It seems to not be able to tell me if there is an DST_offset (its always zero).
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, 2016);
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, 1);
cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 27);
cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 23);
cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 35);
cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
//This is required as Java Date JAN starts at 0.
int MonthCon = cal.get(Calendar.MONTH)-1;
cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, MonthCon);
Date d = cal.getTime();
SimpleDateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssz");
f.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
System.out.println("UTC: " + f.format(d));
f.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
System.out.println("BST: " + f.format(d));
//Creates a BST calendar of the same UTC time
String dateStrBST = f.format(d);
SimpleDateFormat curFormater = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssz");
curFormater.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
Date dateObjBST = curFormater.parse(dateStrBST);
System.out.println("BSTNewDate: " + f.format(dateObjBST));
Calendar calBST = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("BST"));
calBST.setTime(dateObjBST);
System.out.println("Current TimeZone is : " + calBST.getTimeZone());
int offset = calBST.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET);
System.out.println("Day Light Savings: "+offset);
System.out.println("Transition Day: "+isDSTTransitionDay(cal.get(Calendar.YEAR),cal.get(Calendar.MONTH),cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH))+" Transition Type: "+DSTtransitionType(cal.get(Calendar.YEAR),cal.get(Calendar.MONTH),cal.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH)));
Unfortunately I need to be able to detect if any particular day is a transition day, that is to say a day that changes from DST on/off or off/on. Again this works on the local computer but not on the UTC timezone one.
private static boolean isDSTTransitionDay(int year, int month, int day) throws ParseException
{
Calendar calStartofDay = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.YEAR, year);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.MONTH, month);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, day);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 00);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.SECOND, 1);
Date dStartofDay = calStartofDay.getTime();
SimpleDateFormat f = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssz");
f.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
String dateStrUTCtoBST = f.format(dStartofDay);
SimpleDateFormat curFormater = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ssz");
curFormater.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
Date dateObjBST = curFormater.parse(dateStrUTCtoBST);
Calendar calBST = Calendar.getInstance();
calBST.setTime(dateObjBST);
int offsetStart = calBST.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET);
calBST.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 23);
int offsetEnd = calBST.get(Calendar.DST_OFFSET);
//System.out.println("Start: "+offsetStart+" End: "+offsetEnd);
if (offsetEnd == offsetStart)
{
return false;
}else
{
//if(offsetStart<offsetEnd) {System.out.println("Transition to BST");}else{System.out.println("Transition to UTC/GMT");};
return true;
}
}
So on the UTC computer it fails miserably as it always puts Calendar.DST_OFFSET at zero. I have clearly misunderstood something along the way so any help/clarity would be good.
I pretty much have to keep Calendars as the rest of the code uses it but I realise the Java8 has many more fancy ways to do things.

Please allow me to be honest, I tried to read your code and didn’t really understand your way of trying to obtain what you want. If you can use Java 8, I recommend switching to using the Java 8 date and time classes. With these your job isn’t very complicated. For the demonstration I have chosen last October 30, the date when Britain (and EU) changed back from summer time (daylight saving time) to standard time.
String originalDate = "2016-10-30 23:35";
LocalDateTime localTime = LocalDateTime.parse(originalDate, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"));
ZonedDateTime utcTime = localTime.atZone(ZoneOffset.UTC);
ZonedDateTime bstTime = utcTime.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Europe/London"));
// the summer time offset is how many milliseconds?
long dstOffset = ChronoUnit.MILLIS.between(utcTime.toLocalDateTime(), bstTime.toLocalDateTime());
System.out.println(dstOffset); // prints 0
// try the same at start of day (midnight)
utcTime = utcTime.toLocalDate().atStartOfDay(ZoneOffset.UTC);
bstTime = utcTime.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Europe/London"));
dstOffset = ChronoUnit.MILLIS.between(utcTime.toLocalDateTime(), bstTime.toLocalDateTime());
System.out.println(dstOffset); // prints 3600000
// and next midnight
utcTime = utcTime.plusDays(1);
bstTime = utcTime.withZoneSameInstant(ZoneId.of("Europe/London"));
dstOffset = ChronoUnit.MILLIS.between(utcTime.toLocalDateTime(), bstTime.toLocalDateTime());
System.out.println(dstOffset); // prints 0

You are using
Calendar calBST = Calendar.getInstance();
That sets calBST to the computer's timezone (on the UTC computer, it will be UTC).
calBST.setTime(dateObjBST); sets the time, not the timezone.
Try using getInstance(TimeZone zone) there also.
In any case, I would replace your code like this:
Calendar calStartofDay = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.YEAR, 2017);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.MONTH, 0);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 21);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 00);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
calStartofDay.set(Calendar.SECOND, 1);
Calendar calBST = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/London"));
calBST.setTimeInMillis(calStartofDay.getTimeInMillis());
// use this to check the time
System.out.printf("%tc%n", calBST);
Also, from the Calendar docs, be careful about this:
set(f, value) changes calendar field f to value. In addition, it sets
an internal member variable to indicate that calendar field f has been
changed. Although calendar field f is changed immediately, the
calendar's time value in milliseconds is not recomputed until the next
call to get(), getTime(), getTimeInMillis(), add(), or roll() is made.
Thus, multiple calls to set() do not trigger multiple, unnecessary
computations. As a result of changing a calendar field using set(),
other calendar fields may also change, depending on the calendar
field, the calendar field value, and the calendar system. In addition,
get(f) will not necessarily return value set by the call to the set
method after the calendar fields have been recomputed. The specifics
are determined by the concrete calendar class.

How to get time zone from date

I am trying to get time zone from an existing date to use it for some other date conversion. Can someone reply with updating the todos in the below code. Appreciate any help.
Or just to make it simple is there some java api to which i give +0530 and it returns IST :)
Here is my code :
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat
import java.util.*;
import java.text.DateFormat;
SimpleDateFormat isoFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");
Date date = isoFormat.parse("2016-04-21T00:00:00+0530");
//todo print time zone
//todo here should print IST since date is having +0530

This is not possible. A Date does not have time zone information attached. It is just a point in time, internally represented as milliseconds since 1.1.1970 midnight UTC (excluding leap seconds).

A java.util.Date does not have a time zone. It is a pure time in UTC. The parser converted the string to the internal value.
A java.time.ZonedDateTime (Java 8+) does have a time zone.
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("uuuu-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ");
ZonedDateTime dt = ZonedDateTime.parse("2016-04-21T00:00:00+0530", formatter);
ZoneId zone = dt.getZone();
If running Java 6 or 7, use the backport of the Java SE 8 date-time classes.
For Java 5+ use the Joda-Time library.

Just to answer myself so that it might help some one else :
I was having date as string as input lets say :
String startDate = "2016-04-21T00:00:00+0530"
//i can calculate the timezone offset using
String offSet = startDate.substring(startDate.length() - 5) //gives +0530
Method used to calculate timezone. Here we give offset calculated above and the below method returns the TimeZone object:
public static TimeZone fetchTimeZone(String offset) {
if (offset.length() != 5) {
return null
}
TimeZone tz
Integer offsetHours = Integer.parseInt(offset.substring(0, 3))
Integer offsetMinutes = Integer.parseInt(offset.substring(3))
String[] ids = TimeZone.getAvailableIDs()
for (int i = 0; i < ids.length; i++) {
tz = TimeZone.getTimeZone(ids[i])
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(tz.getRawOffset())
long minutes = Math.abs(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(tz.getRawOffset()) % 60)
if (hours != offsetHours || minutes != offsetMinutes) {
tz = null
} else {
break
}
}
return tz
}
Finally i use the Timezone from above method to format any date to that timezone :
SimpleDateFormat timeZonedFormatter = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ssZ")
TimeZone timeZone = fetchTimeZone(offSet) //from above method and offset from first code
timeZonedFormatter.setTimeZone(timeZone);
//this timeZonedFormatter can be used to format any date into the respective timeZone

How can I convert a Timestamp into either Date or DateTime object?

I'm retrieving a timestamp object from a database using ResultSet.getTimestamp(), but I'd like an easy way to get the date in the format of MM/DD/YYYY and the time in a format of HH:MM xx. I was tinkering around, it it looks as though I can do such by making use of the Date and/or DateTime objects within Java. Is that the best way to go, or do I even need to convert the timestamp to accomplish this? Any recommendations would be helpful.
....
while(resultSet.next()) {
Timestamp dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Timestamp dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
....
}
....

import java.sql.Timestamp;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Timestamp timestamp = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
Date date = new Date(timestamp.getTime());
// S is the millisecond
SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy' 'HH:mm:ss:S");
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(timestamp));
System.out.println(simpleDateFormat.format(date));
}
}

java.sql.Timestamp is a subclass of java.util.Date. So, just upcast it.
Date dtStart = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtStart");
Date dtEnd = resultSet.getTimestamp("dtEnd");
Using SimpleDateFormat and creating Joda DateTime should be straightforward from this point on.

java.time
Modern answer: use java.time, the modern Java date and time API, for your date and time work. Back in 2011 it was right to use the Timestamp class, but since JDBC 4.2 it is no longer advised.
For your work we need a time zone and a couple of formatters. We may as well declare them static:
static ZoneId zone = ZoneId.of("America/Marigot");
static DateTimeFormatter dateFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("MM/dd/uuuu");
static DateTimeFormatter timeFormatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm xx");
Now the code could be for example:
while(resultSet.next()) {
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", OffsetDateTime.class)
.atZoneSameInstant(zone);
// I would like to then have the date and time
// converted into the formats mentioned...
String dateFormatted = dtStart.format(dateFormatter);
String timeFormatted = dtStart.format(timeFormatter);
System.out.format("Date: %s; time: %s%n", dateFormatted, timeFormatted);
}
Example output (using the time your question was asked):
Date: 09/20/2011; time: 18:13 -0400
In your database timestamp with time zone is recommended for timestamps. If this is what you’ve got, retrieve an OffsetDateTime as I am doing in the code. I am also converting the retrieved value to the user’s time zone before formatting date and time separately. As time zone I supplied America/Marigot as an example, please supply your own. You may also leave out the time zone conversion if you don’t want any, of course.
If the datatype in SQL is a mere timestamp without time zone, retrieve a LocalDateTime instead. For example:
ZonedDateTime dtStart = resultSet.getObject("dtStart", LocalDateTime.class)
.atZone(zone);
No matter the details I trust you to do similarly for dtEnd.
I wasn’t sure what you meant by the xx in HH:MM xx. I just left it in the format pattern string, which yields the UTC offset in hours and minutes without colon.
Link: Oracle tutorial: Date Time explaining how to use java.time.

You can also get DateTime object from timestamp, including your current daylight saving time:
public DateTime getDateTimeFromTimestamp(Long value) {
TimeZone timeZone = TimeZone.getDefault();
long offset = timeZone.getOffset(value);
if (offset < 0) {
value -= offset;
} else {
value += offset;
}
return new DateTime(value);
}

LocalDateTime dtStart = rs.getTimestamp("dtStart").toLocalDateTime();
Converts this Timestamp object to a code LocalDateTime.
The conversion creates a code LocalDateTime that represents the
same year, month, day of month, hours, minutes, seconds and nanos
date-time value as this code Timestamp in the local time zone.
since 1.8

Java program to get the current date without timestamp

I need a Java program to get the current date without a timestamp:
Date d = new Date();
gives me date and timestamp.
But I need only the date, without a timestamp. I use this date to compare with another date object that does not have a timestamp.
On printing
System.out.println("Current Date : " + d)
of d it should print May 11 2010 - 00:00:00.

A java.util.Date object is a kind of timestamp - it contains a number of milliseconds since January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC. So you can't use a standard Date object to contain just a day / month / year, without a time.
As far as I know, there's no really easy way to compare dates by only taking the date (and not the time) into account in the standard Java API. You can use class Calendar and clear the hour, minutes, seconds and milliseconds:
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.clear(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
cal.clear(Calendar.AM_PM);
cal.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
cal.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
cal.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
Do the same with another Calendar object that contains the date that you want to compare it to, and use the after() or before() methods to do the comparison.
As explained into the Javadoc of java.util.Calendar.clear(int field):
The HOUR_OF_DAY, HOUR and AM_PM fields are handled independently and the the resolution rule for the time of day is applied. Clearing one of the fields doesn't reset the hour of day value of this Calendar. Use set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) to reset the hour value.
edit - The answer above is from 2010; in Java 8, there is a new date and time API in the package java.time which is much more powerful and useful than the old java.util.Date and java.util.Calendar classes. Use the new date and time classes instead of the old ones.

You could always use apache commons' DateUtils class. It has the static method isSameDay() which "Checks if two date objects are on the same day ignoring time."
static boolean isSameDay(Date date1, Date date2)

Use DateFormat to solve this problem:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
DateFormat dateFormat2 = new SimpleDateFormat("MM-dd-yyyy");
print(dateFormat.format(new Date()); // will print like 2014-02-20
print(dateFormat2.format(new Date()); // will print like 02-20-2014

I did as follows and it worked: (Current date without timestamp)
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy");
Date today = dateFormat.parse(dateFormat.format(new Date()));

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM dd yyyy");
java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();
System.out.println("Current Date : " + dateFormat.format(date));

You can get by this date:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
print(dateFormat.format(new Date());

You could use
// Format a string containing a date.
import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import static java.util.Calendar.*;
Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
String s = String.format("Duke's Birthday: %1$tm %1$te,%1$tY", c);
// -> s == "Duke's Birthday: May 23, 1995"
Have a look at the Formatter API documentation.

The accepted answer by Jesper is correct but now outdated. The java.util.Date and .Calendar classes are notoriously troublesome. Avoid them.
java.time
Instead use the java.time framework, built into Java 8 and later, back-ported to Java 6 & 7 and further adapted to Android.
If you truly do not care about time-of-day and time zones, use LocalDate in the java.time framework ().
LocalDate localDate = LocalDate.of( 2014 , 5 , 6 );
Today
A time zone is crucial in determining a date. For any given moment, the date varies around the globe by zone. For example, a few minutes after midnight in Paris France is a new day while still “yesterday” in Montréal Québec.
If no time zone is specified, the JVM implicitly applies its current default time zone. That default may change at any moment during runtime(!), so your results may vary. Better to specify your desired/expected time zone explicitly as an argument. If you want to use the JVM’s current default time zone, make your intention clear by calling ZoneId.systemDefault(). If critical, confirm the zone with your user.
Specify a proper time zone name in the format of Continent/Region, such as America/Montreal, Africa/Casablanca, or Pacific/Auckland. Never use the 2-4 letter abbreviation such as EST or IST as they are not true time zones, not standardized, and not even unique(!).
ZoneId z = ZoneId.of( "America/Montreal" ) ;
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z ) ;
If you want to use the JVM’s current default time zone, ask for it and pass as an argument. If omitted, the code becomes ambiguous to read in that we do not know for certain if you intended to use the default or if you, like so many programmers, were unaware of the issue.
ZoneId z = ZoneId.systemDefault() ; // Get JVM’s current default time zone.
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now( z ) ;
Moment
If you care about specific moments, specific points on the timeline, do not use LocalDate. If you care about the date as seen through the wall-clock time used by the people of a certain region, do not use LocalDate.
Be aware that if you have any chance of needing to deal with other time zones or UTC, this is the wrong way to go. Naïve programmers tend to think they do not need time zones when in fact they do.
Strings
Call toString to generate a string in standard ISO 8601 format.
String output = localDate.toString();
2014-05-06
For other formats, search Stack Overflow for DateTimeFormatter class.
Joda-Time
Though now supplanted by java.time, you can use the similar LocalDate class in the Joda-Time library (the inspiration for java.time).
LocalDate localDate = new LocalDate( 2014, 5, 6 );

Also you can use apache commons lib DateUtils.truncate():
Date now = new Date();
Date truncated = DateUtils.truncate(now, Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
Time will be set to 00:00:00 so you can work with this date or print it formatted:
DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(now); // 2010-05-11 11:32:47
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(truncated); // 2010-05-11 00:00:00

private static final DateFormat df1 = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd");
private static Date NOW = new Date();
static {
try {
NOW = df1.parse(df1.format(new Date()));
} catch (ParseException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

I think this will work. Use Calendar to manipulate time fields (reset them to zero), then get the Date from the Calendar.
Calendar c = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
c.clear( Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY );
c.clear( Calendar.MINUTE );
c.clear( Calendar.SECOND );
c.clear( Calendar.MILLISECOND );
Date today = c.getTime();
Or do the opposite. Put the date you want to compare to in a calendar and compare calendar dates
Date compareToDate; // assume this is set before going in.
Calendar today = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
Calendar compareTo = GregorianCalendar.getInstance();
compareTo.setTime( compareToDate );
if( today.get( Calendar.YEAR ) == compareTo.get( Calendar.YEAR ) &&
today.get( Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR ) == compareTo.get( Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR ) ) {
// They are the same day!
}

Here's an inelegant way of doing it quick without additional dependencies.
You could just use java.sql.Date, which extends java.util.Date although for comparisons you will have to compare the Strings.
java.sql.Date dt1 = new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
String dt1Text = dt1.toString();
System.out.println("Current Date1 : " + dt1Text);
Thread.sleep(2000);
java.sql.Date dt2 = new java.sql.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
String dt2Text = dt2.toString();
System.out.println("Current Date2 : " + dt2Text);
boolean dateResult = dt1.equals(dt2);
System.out.println("Date comparison is " + dateResult);
boolean stringResult = dt1Text.equals(dt2Text);
System.out.println("String comparison is " + stringResult);
Output:
Current Date1 : 2010-05-10
Current Date2 : 2010-05-10
Date comparison is false
String comparison is true

If you really want to use a Date instead for a Calendar for comparison, this is the shortest piece of code you could use:
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
Date d = new GregorianCalendar(c.get(Calendar.YEAR),
c.get(Calendar.MONTH),
c.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH)).getTime();
This way you make sure the hours/minute/second/millisecond values are blank.

I did as follows and it worked:
calendar1.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.AM_PM, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
calendar1.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
Date date1 = calendar1.getTime(); // Convert it to date
Do this for other instances to which you want to compare. This logic worked for me; I had to compare the dates whether they are equal or not, but you can do different comparisons (before, after, equals, etc.)

I was looking for the same solution and the following worked for me.
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
calendar.clear(Calendar.HOUR);
calendar.clear(Calendar.MINUTE);
calendar.clear(Calendar.SECOND);
calendar.clear(Calendar.MILLISECOND);
Date today = calendar.getTime();
Please note that I am using calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) for HOUR_OF_DAY instead of using the clear method, because it is suggested in Calendar.clear method's javadocs as the following
The HOUR_OF_DAY, HOUR and AM_PM fields are handled independently and
the the resolution rule for the time of day is applied. Clearing one
of the fields doesn't reset the hour of day value of this Calendar.
Use set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0) to reset the hour value.
With the above posted solution I get output as
Wed Sep 11 00:00:00 EDT 2013
Using clear method for HOUR_OF_DAY resets hour at 12 when executing after 12PM or 00 when executing before 12PM.

Here is my code for get only date:
Calendar c=Calendar.getInstance();
DateFormat dm = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy");
java.util.Date date = new java.util.Date();
System.out.println("current date is : " + dm.format(date));

Here is full Example of it.But you have to cast Sting back to Date.
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
//TODO OutPut should LIKE in this format MM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS
public class TestDateExample {
public static void main(String args[]) throws ParseException {
SimpleDateFormat changeFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("MM dd yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSSSSS");
Date thisDate = new Date();//changeFormat.parse("10 07 2012");
System.out.println("Current Date : " + thisDate);
changeFormat.format(thisDate);
System.out.println("----------------------------");
System.out.println("After applying formating :");
String strDateOutput = changeFormat.format(thisDate);
System.out.println(strDateOutput);
}
}