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Java Date before() Method with Example

Date Class before() method: Here, we are going to learn about the before() method of Date Class with its syntax and example.
Submitted by Preeti Jain, on February 09, 2020

Date Class before() method

• before() method is available in java.util package.
• before() method is used to check whether this date is before the given date (d) or not.
• before() method is a non-static method, it is accessible with the class object only and if we try to access the method with the class name then we will get an error.
• before() method may throw an exception at the time of the checking date.
  NullPointerException: This exception may throw when the given parameter (d) is null exists.

Syntax:

    public boolean before(Date d);

Parameter(s):

• Date d – represents the Date object to be tested.

Return value:

The return type of this method is boolean, it returns true when this date is before the given Date (d) otherwise it returns false.

Example:

// Java program to demonstrate the example 
// of boolean before() method of Date 

import java.util.*;

public class BeforeDate {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // create two Date object with two dates
        Date this_date = new Date(2016, 8, 20);
        Date given_date = new Date(2010, 11, 30);

        // By using before() method is to check
        // whether this date (this_date) is before the
        // given date (given_date) or not
        boolean status = this_date.before(given_date);

        // Display status
        System.out.println("this_date.before(given_date): " + status);
    }
}

Output

this_date.before(given_date): false