How to calculate difference between two dates in years…etc with Joda-Time

Question

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import org.joda.time.*;

public class Test {

  public static void main(String[] args) {

String dateStart = "01/01/2000 05:30";
String dateStop = "02/2/2001 06:31";

SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm");

Date d1 = null;
Date d2 = null;

try {
    d1 = format.parse(dateStart);
    d2 = format.parse(dateStop);

    DateTime dt1 = new DateTime(d1);
    DateTime dt2 = new DateTime(d2);

    System.out.print(Years.yearsBetween(dt1, dt2).getYears() + " years, ");
    System.out.print(Months.monthsBetween(dt1, dt2).getMonths() % 52 + " months, ");
    System.out.print(Weeks.weeksBetween(dt1, dt2).getWeeks() % 4 + " weeks, ");
    System.out.print(Days.daysBetween(dt1, dt2).getDays() % 7 + " days, ");
    System.out.print(Hours.hoursBetween(dt1, dt2).getHours() % 24 + " hours, ");
    System.out.print(Minutes.minutesBetween(dt1, dt2).getMinutes() % 60 + " minutes, ");


 } catch (Exception e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
 }

}

}

I want to output the number of years, months, weeks, days, hours, and minutes between two dates using Joda-Time . My question is where do I implement the number of weeks in a month (which in never constant). I don't think my %'s are right either.

When run I get:

1 years, 13 months, 0 weeks, 6 days, 1 hours, 1 minutes, 

Answer 1

Period gives you this out of the box.

Period period = new Period(d1, d2);
System.out.print(period.getYears() + " years, ");
System.out.print(period.getMonths() + " months, ");
// ...

To prettify and get a little more control over the output, you can use a PeriodFormatterBuilder .