Java Calendar method before() to check whether time is before the specified object

Calendar.before(date obj) Check by comparing the calendar with the date represented.

date obj : Required Calendar date object, represented.
Returns boolean , true if the date is before the Calendar date object , false otherwise.

Examples with output
Let us find out the current date , then compare this with the given ( input ) date.

package my_proj;
 
import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class my_first {
public static void main(String[] args) {

  
Calendar my_cal = Calendar.getInstance();// created calendar 
Calendar my_present_date=Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println("Current Date is : " + my_present_date.getTime());

//Year, Month, Date, Hour, Minute, Second
my_cal.set(2020,2, 3); // Input date
System.out.println("Input date is :" + my_cal.getTime());

System.out.println(my_cal.before(my_present_date));//true
}
}

Output is here

Current Date is : Mon Mar 02 12:38:43 IST 2020
Input date is :Tue Mar 03 12:38:43 IST 2020
false

This output will change based on the current date and input date you use in your script. As you can see we tested this program on Mar 2^nd by using input date as 3^rd of March ( same year ), we got the output as false.

Including time

We will add Hour , minutes and Seconds to our comparison. We have kept the minutes part more than the current minute, so we get false as output.

package my_proj;
 
import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class my_first {
public static void main(String[] args) {

  
Calendar my_cal = Calendar.getInstance();// created calendar 
Calendar my_present_date=Calendar.getInstance();
System.out.println("Current Date is: " + my_present_date.getTime());

//Year, Month, Date, Hour, Minute, Second
my_cal.set(2020,2, 2,12,51,13); // Input date
System.out.println("Input Date  is  :" + my_cal.getTime());

System.out.println(my_cal.before(my_present_date));//true
}
}

Output is here

Current Date is: Mon Mar 02 12:42:06 IST 2020
Input Date  is  :Mon Mar 02 12:51:13 IST 2020
false

With two input dates

Instead of using current date and time we can use two input dates for comparison.
As our first date ( my_cal_d1 ) is before second date ( my_cal_d2), we will get true as output.

package my_proj;
 
import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class my_first {
public static void main(String[] args) {

  
Calendar my_cal_d1 = Calendar.getInstance();// created calendar 
Calendar my_cal_d2 = Calendar.getInstance();

my_cal_d1.set(2020,2, 1); // Input date
my_cal_d2.set(2020,2, 2); // Input date

System.out.println(my_cal_d1.before(my_cal_d2));// true
}
}

Date & time tutorials

add() before() compareTo()

Java

Calendar.before()

Including time

With two input dates

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