java.util.Date - Deleting three months from a date

Question

I have a date of type java.util.Date

I want to subtract three months from it.

Not finding a lot of joy in the API.

Answer 1

Using Java 8 you can do it like this,

Date d = Date.from(LocalDate.now().minusMonths(3).atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());

The LocalDate class has a lot of methods to help you make easy computations about dates like the above,

// Add 2 months
Date d = Date.from(LocalDate.now().plusMonths(2).atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());
// Add 5 days
Date d = Date.from(LocalDate.now().plusDays(5).atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());
// Minus 1 day and 1 year
Date d = Date.from(LocalDate.now().minusYears(1).minusDays(1).atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());

In order to compute time you can use the LocalDateTime class,

// Minus 1 year, minus 1 days, plus 1 hour
Date d = Date.from(LocalDateTime.now().minusYears(1).minusDays(1).plusHours(1).toLocalDate().atStartOfDay(ZoneId.systemDefault()).toInstant());

Answer 2

Here's the plain JDK version, it needs the Calendar class as a helper:

Date referenceDate = new Date();
Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance(); 
c.setTime(referenceDate); 
c.add(Calendar.MONTH, -3);
return c.getTime();

But you should seriously consider using the Joda library, because of various shortcomings of the Date and Calendar classes. With Joda you can do the following:

new DateTime().minusMonths(3).toDate();

Or if you want to subtract from a given date instead of the current:

new DateTime(referenceDate).minusMonths(3).toDate();

Update for Java 8: With Java 8 you can also use the new JSR 310 API (which is inspired by Joda):

LocalDateTime.from(referenceDate.toInstant()).minusMonths(3);

Answer 3

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(new Date());
cal.add(Calendar.MONTH, -3);

Set your date using setTime method.

Answer 4

I always recommend Joda for this sort of stuff. It has a much nicer API, and doesn't suffer from threading issues that the standard Java date/time has (e.g. issues with SimpleDateFormat, or general mutability).

e.g.

DateTime result = dt.minusMonths(3);

Answer 5

String startDate="15/10/1987";

    Date date = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy").parse(startDate);
    String formattedDate = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd").format(date);
    LocalDate today = LocalDate.parse(formattedDate);
    String endDate=today.minusMonths(3).toString();