How do I check if two LocalDates are in the past? [closed]

Question

I am currently programming error avoidance. So I have two LocalDates: from and until and I want to check if one of them is in the past.

This is my method. But somewhere there seems to be an error, because if I select a LocalDate for "from" which is in the past, I get a false back.

    private static boolean isPast(LocalDate from, LocalDate until) {
        if (LocalDate.now().isAfter(from) || LocalDate.now().isAfter(until)) {
            return true;
        } else {
            return false;
        }
    }

Answer 1

Alternatively you could write:

private static boolean atLeastOneInThePast(LocalDate from, LocalDate until) {
    LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();
    return today.isAfter(from) || today.isAfter(until);
}

Which is 23:59 consistent. And allows an easy debugging of today.

Your code seems fine, if from is yesterday. So only your system clock, LocalDate.now(), may be off.

Answer 2

Here is the test. You want to check if one of your dates is in the past. Your method works.

        LocalDate a = LocalDate.of(2010, 1, 10); // past
        LocalDate b = LocalDate.of(2030, 2, 10); // future
        System.out.println(isPast(a,b)); // prints true


         a = LocalDate.of(2030, 1, 10); // future
         b = LocalDate.of(2010, 2, 10); // past
         System.out.println(isPast(a,b)); // prints true

         a = LocalDate.of(2030, 1, 10);  // future
         b = LocalDate.of(2030, 2, 20);  // future
         System.out.println(isPast(a,b)); // prints false

         a = LocalDate.of(2010, 1, 10); // past
         b = LocalDate.of(2010, 2, 10); // past

         System.out.println(isPast(a,b)); // prints true

There may be granularity or timezone problems depending on how you specified the dates.