How to compare dates in Java

Using Date.compareTo() function:

A classic method to compare two java.util.Date in Java.

1. Return value is 0 if both dates are equal.

2. Return value is greater than 0 , if Date is after the date argument.

3. Return value is less than 0, if Date is before the date argument

TestDate.java

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class TestDate {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {

        SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");
        Date date1 = sdf.parse("2019-08-03");
        Date date2 = sdf.parse("2019-07-31");

        System.out.println("date1 : " + sdf.format(date1));
        System.out.println("date2 : " + sdf.format(date2));

        if (date1.compareTo(date2) > 0) {
            System.out.println("Date1 is after Date2");
        } else if (date1.compareTo(date2) < 0) {
            System.out.println("Date1 is before Date2");
        } else if (date1.compareTo(date2) == 0) {
            System.out.println("Date1 is equal to Date2");
        } else {
            System.out.println("How to get here?");
        }

    }

}

Output:

date1 : 2019-08-03
date2 : 2019-07-31
Date1 is after Date2