因为这个问题用Scala做了标记，

import scala.concurrent.duration._
val diff = (System.currentTimeMillis() - oldDate.getTime).milliseconds
val diffSeconds = diff.toSeconds
val diffMinutes = diff.toMinutes
val diffHours = diff.toHours
val diffDays = diff.toDays

使用GMT时区获取一个Calendar实例，使用Calendar类的set方法设置时间。GMT时区偏移量为0(并不重要)，夏令时标志设置为false。

    final Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT"));

    cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, 2011);
    cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, 9);
    cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 29);
    cal.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    final Date startDate = cal.getTime();

    cal.set(Calendar.YEAR, 2011);
    cal.set(Calendar.MONTH, 12);
    cal.set(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 21);
    cal.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    final Date endDate = cal.getTime();

    System.out.println((endDate.getTime() - startDate.getTime()) % (1000l * 60l * 60l * 24l));

在某些地区使用毫秒方法可能会导致问题。

举个例子，03/24/2007和03/25/2007之间的差应该是1天;

然而，如果使用毫秒路径，你将得到0天，如果你在英国运行这个!

/** Manual Method - YIELDS INCORRECT RESULTS - DO NOT USE**/  
/* This method is used to find the no of days between the given dates */  
public long calculateDays(Date dateEarly, Date dateLater) {  
   return (dateLater.getTime() - dateEarly.getTime()) / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);  
} 

更好的实现方法是使用java.util.Calendar

/** Using Calendar - THE CORRECT WAY**/  
public static long daysBetween(Calendar startDate, Calendar endDate) {  
  Calendar date = (Calendar) startDate.clone();  
  long daysBetween = 0;  
  while (date.before(endDate)) {  
    date.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);  
    daysBetween++;  
  }  
  return daysBetween;  
}  

看看Joda Time，它是一个改进的Java日期/时间API，应该可以很好地与Scala一起工作。

只需要对每个函数调用getTime，取其差值，然后除以一天中的毫秒数。

查看示例http://www.roseindia.net/java/beginners/DateDifferent.shtml 这个例子给出了天、小时、分钟、秒和毫秒的差异:)。

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateDifferent {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Date date1 = new Date(2009, 01, 10);
        Date date2 = new Date(2009, 07, 01);
        Calendar calendar1 = Calendar.getInstance();
        Calendar calendar2 = Calendar.getInstance();
        calendar1.setTime(date1);
        calendar2.setTime(date2);
        long milliseconds1 = calendar1.getTimeInMillis();
        long milliseconds2 = calendar2.getTimeInMillis();
        long diff = milliseconds2 - milliseconds1;
        long diffSeconds = diff / 1000;
        long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000);
        long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
        long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
        System.out.println("\nThe Date Different Example");
        System.out.println("Time in milliseconds: " + diff + " milliseconds.");
        System.out.println("Time in seconds: " + diffSeconds + " seconds.");
        System.out.println("Time in minutes: " + diffMinutes + " minutes.");
        System.out.println("Time in hours: " + diffHours + " hours.");
        System.out.println("Time in days: " + diffDays + " days.");
    }
}