How do I calculate someone's age in Java?

JDK 8 makes this easy and elegant:

public class AgeCalculator {

    public static int calculateAge(LocalDate birthDate, LocalDate currentDate) {
        if ((birthDate != null) && (currentDate != null)) {
            return Period.between(birthDate, currentDate).getYears();
        } else {
            return 0;
        }
    }
}

A JUnit test to demonstrate its use:

public class AgeCalculatorTest {

    @Test
    public void testCalculateAge_Success() {
        // setup
        LocalDate birthDate = LocalDate.of(1961, 5, 17);
        // exercise
        int actual = AgeCalculator.calculateAge(birthDate, LocalDate.of(2016, 7, 12));
        // assert
        Assert.assertEquals(55, actual);
    }
}

Everyone should be using JDK 8 by now. All earlier versions have passed the end of their support lives.

Check out Joda, which simplifies date/time calculations (Joda is also the basis of the new standard Java date/time apis, so you'll be learning a soon-to-be-standard API).

e.g.

LocalDate birthdate = new LocalDate (1970, 1, 20);
LocalDate now = new LocalDate();
Years age = Years.yearsBetween(birthdate, now);

which is as simple as you could want. The pre-Java 8 stuff is (as you've identified) somewhat unintuitive.

EDIT: Java 8 has something very similar and is worth checking out.

EDIT: This answer pre-dates the Java 8 date/time classes and is not current any more.

Calendar now = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar dob = Calendar.getInstance();
dob.setTime(...);
if (dob.after(now)) {
  throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't be born in the future");
}
int year1 = now.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int year2 = dob.get(Calendar.YEAR);
int age = year1 - year2;
int month1 = now.get(Calendar.MONTH);
int month2 = dob.get(Calendar.MONTH);
if (month2 > month1) {
  age--;
} else if (month1 == month2) {
  int day1 = now.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
  int day2 = dob.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
  if (day2 > day1) {
    age--;
  }
}
// age is now correct

With the date4j library :

int age = today.getYear() - birthdate.getYear();
if(today.getDayOfYear() < birthdate.getDayOfYear()){
  age = age - 1; 
}

Try to copy this one in your code, then use the method to get the age.

public static int getAge(Date birthday)
{
    GregorianCalendar today = new GregorianCalendar();
    GregorianCalendar bday = new GregorianCalendar();
    GregorianCalendar bdayThisYear = new GregorianCalendar();

    bday.setTime(birthday);
    bdayThisYear.setTime(birthday);
    bdayThisYear.set(Calendar.YEAR, today.get(Calendar.YEAR));

    int age = today.get(Calendar.YEAR) - bday.get(Calendar.YEAR);

    if(today.getTimeInMillis() < bdayThisYear.getTimeInMillis())
        age--;

    return age;
}

Elegant, seemingly correct, timestamp difference based variant of Yaron Ronen solution.

I am including a unit test to prove when and why it is not correct. It is impossible due (to possibly) different number of leap days (and seconds) in any timestamp difference. The discrepancy should be max +-1 day (and one second) for this algorithm, see test2(), whereas Yaron Ronen solution based on completely constant assumption of timeDiff / MILLI_SECONDS_YEAR can differ 10 days for a 40ty year old, nevertheless this variant is incorrect too.

It is tricky, because this improved variant, using formula diffAsCalendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) - 1970, returns correct results most of the time, as number of leap years in on average same between two dates.

/**
 * Compute person's age based on timestamp difference between birth date and given date
 * and prove it is INCORRECT approach.
 */
public class AgeUsingTimestamps {

public int getAge(Date today, Date dateOfBirth) {
    long diffAsLong = today.getTime() - dateOfBirth.getTime();
    Calendar diffAsCalendar = Calendar.getInstance();
    diffAsCalendar.setTimeInMillis(diffAsLong);
    return diffAsCalendar.get(Calendar.YEAR) - 1970; // base time where timestamp=0, precisely 1/1/1970 00:00:00 
}

    final static DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("dd.MM.yyy HH:mm:ss");

    @Test
    public void test1() throws Exception {
        Date dateOfBirth = df.parse("10.1.2000 00:00:00");
        assertEquals(87, getAge(df.parse("08.1.2088 23:59:59"), dateOfBirth));
        assertEquals(87, getAge(df.parse("09.1.2088 23:59:59"), dateOfBirth));
        assertEquals(88, getAge(df.parse("10.1.2088 00:00:01"), dateOfBirth));
    }

    @Test
    public void test2() throws Exception {
        // between 2000 and 2021 was 6 leap days
        // but between 1970 (base time) and 1991 there was only 5 leap days
        // therefore age is switched one day earlier
            // See http://www.onlineconversion.com/leapyear.htm
        Date dateOfBirth = df.parse("10.1.2000 00:00:00");
        assertEquals(20, getAge(df.parse("08.1.2021 23:59:59"), dateOfBirth));
        assertEquals(20, getAge(df.parse("09.1.2021 23:59:59"), dateOfBirth)); // ERROR! returns incorrect age=21 here
        assertEquals(21, getAge(df.parse("10.1.2021 00:00:01"), dateOfBirth));
    }
}

Simple solution in kotlin.

  fun getAgeOfUser(date: String?) : Int {
    if(date.isNullOrEmpty()) return 0
    val calendar = Calendar.getInstance()
    val cYear = calendar.get(Calendar.YEAR)
    val cDay = calendar.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR)

    val dob = Calendar.getInstance()
    dob.timeInMillis = date.toLong()
    val bYear = dob.get(Calendar.YEAR)
    val bDay = dob.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR)

    var age = cYear - bYear
    if(cDay < bDay) age--
    return age
}

I appreciate all correct answers but this is the kotlin answer for the same question

I hope would be helpful to kotlin developers

fun calculateAge(birthDate: Date): Int {
        val now = Date()
        val timeBetween = now.getTime() - birthDate.getTime();
        val yearsBetween = timeBetween / 3.15576e+10;
        return Math.floor(yearsBetween).toInt()
    }