Compare two dates in years with comma and leap year

user_3371251 0
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There are many entries on the internet how the difference between two dates can be compared. However, I still haven't found the right solution for me.

In short: I'm looking for the equivalent of dayjs (javascript library - dayJs) function diff with the parameter "years" and a comma. So that I get the output (example): 7.645161290322581 years

const date1 = dayjs('2019-01-25')
date1.diff('2012-06-05', 'year', true) // 6.639424491947131

A nice solution would have been between. Unfortunately, the following code only gives me the year without a comma.

long diff = ChronoUnit.YEARS.between(date1, date2);

Sadly, this solution gives me only 6 years and NOT 6.639424491947131.

I've found other solutions, but they don't take leap years into account.

Could someone please help me here.

//EDIT

Thanks for the anwers. However days is not an option. I need the years with comma. Changed 7.49 to 6.639424491947131

Days / 365 is to inaccurate. Sometimes you have a leap year sometimes not.

java
2 Answers

tl;dr

ChronoUnit
.DAYS
.between( 
    LocalDate.parse( "2012-06-05" ) , 
    LocalDate.parse( "2019-01-25" )  
) 
/
365.2425d

See this code run live at IdeOne.com.

6.639424491947131

Details

Why not use a count of days? That is what a decimal fraction of years between dates means: a count of days. A decimal fraction to 15 places creates the illusion of precision that is not actually present when comparing two dates.

LocalDate start = LocalDate.parse( "2012-06-05" ) ;
LocalDate end = LocalDate.parse( "2019-01-25" ) ;

long daysElapsed = ChronoUnit.DAYS.between( start , end ) ;

If you insist on a fraction, divide by whatever fractional count of days per year makes sense to you.

The days per year over a 400 year cycle of the Gregorian calendar is 365.2425.

double DAYS_PER_YEAR = 365.2425d ;
double yearsElapsed = ( daysElapsed / DAYS_PER_YEAR ) ;

For accuracy, use BigDecimal rather than double.

user_6427060

I am not saying this is "the answer" but it should be a suggestion for you to base your solution on.

public static void main(String[] args) {        
    Date date1 = Date.from(Instant.now());
    Calendar cal = new GregorianCalendar(2021,Calendar.JANUARY, 1);
    Date date2 = cal.getTime();
        
    long diffInMillies = Math.abs(date2.getTime() - date1.getTime());
    long diff = TimeUnit.DAYS.convert(diffInMillies, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    System.out.println("Difference in days: " + diff);
    BigDecimal yDiff = new BigDecimal(diff/365.25);
    System.out.println("Difference in years: " + yDiff.doubleValue());
}

You could take some code like this, and wrap it in a function that manipulates the difference between two dates using standard Java libraries. As you can see in the example below, I used the Java library to calculate the difference of two dates in days, and then I just did a simple calculation to extrapolate the difference in years. I am not sure why this won't be an acceptable compromise.

Using BigDecimal instead of double gives you more precision as well as an easier way to define significant digits.

user_28513110
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