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

这可能是最直接的方法了——也许是因为我已经用Java编写了一段时间了(它的日期和时间库确实很笨拙)，但对我来说，代码看起来“简单而漂亮”!

您是否对以毫秒为单位返回的结果感到满意，或者您的问题的一部分是希望以某种替代格式返回?

如果你不想使用JodaTime或类似的，最好的解决方案可能是:

final static long MILLIS_PER_DAY = 24 * 3600 * 1000;
long msDiff= date1.getTime() - date2.getTime();
long daysDiff = Math.round(msDiff / ((double)MILLIS_PER_DAY));

每天的毫秒数并不总是相同的(因为日光节约时间和闰秒)，但它非常接近，至少由于日光节约时间的偏差在较长时间内抵消了。因此，除法和舍入将给出正确的结果(至少只要所使用的本地日历不包含DST和闰秒以外的奇怪时间跳转)。

请注意，这仍然假设date1和date2被设置为一天中的同一时间。对于一天中的不同时间，你首先必须定义“日期差异”的含义，正如乔恩·斯基特指出的那样。

只需在两个Date对象上使用下面的方法。如果你想传递当前日期，只需传递new date()作为第二个参数，因为它是用当前时间初始化的。

public String getDateDiffString(Date dateOne, Date dateTwo)
{
    long timeOne = dateOne.getTime();
    long timeTwo = dateTwo.getTime();
    long oneDay = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
    long delta = (timeTwo - timeOne) / oneDay;

    if (delta > 0) {
        return "dateTwo is " + delta + " days after dateOne";
    }
    else {
        delta *= -1;
        return "dateTwo is " + delta + " days before dateOne";
     }
}

此外，除了从天数，如果，你也想要其他参数的差异，使用下面的片段，

int year = delta / 365;
int rest = delta % 365;
int month = rest / 30;
rest = rest % 30;
int weeks = rest / 7;
int days = rest % 7;

p.s. Code完全取自SO答案。

以毫秒为单位减去日期是可行的(如另一篇文章所述)，但在清除日期的时间部分时，你必须使用HOUR_OF_DAY而不是HOUR:

public static final long MSPERDAY = 60 * 60 * 24 * 1000;
...
final Calendar dateStartCal = Calendar.getInstance();
dateStartCal.setTime(dateStart);
dateStartCal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0); // Crucial.
dateStartCal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
dateStartCal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
dateStartCal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
final Calendar dateEndCal = Calendar.getInstance();
dateEndCal.setTime(dateEnd);
dateEndCal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0); // Crucial.
dateEndCal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
dateEndCal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
dateEndCal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
final long dateDifferenceInDays = ( dateStartCal.getTimeInMillis()
                                  - dateEndCal.getTimeInMillis()
                                  ) / MSPERDAY;
if (dateDifferenceInDays > 15) {
    // Do something if difference > 15 days
}

这是一个正确的Java 7解决方案，没有任何依赖。

public static int countDaysBetween(Date date1, Date date2) {

    Calendar c1 = removeTime(from(date1));
    Calendar c2 = removeTime(from(date2));

    if (c1.get(YEAR) == c2.get(YEAR)) {

        return Math.abs(c1.get(DAY_OF_YEAR) - c2.get(DAY_OF_YEAR)) + 1;
    }
    // ensure c1 <= c2
    if (c1.get(YEAR) > c2.get(YEAR)) {
        Calendar c = c1;
        c1 = c2;
        c2 = c;
    }
    int y1 = c1.get(YEAR);
    int y2 = c2.get(YEAR);
    int d1 = c1.get(DAY_OF_YEAR);
    int d2 = c2.get(DAY_OF_YEAR);

    return d2 + ((y2 - y1) * 365) - d1 + countLeapYearsBetween(y1, y2) + 1;
}

private static int countLeapYearsBetween(int y1, int y2) {

    if (y1 < 1 || y2 < 1) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Year must be > 0.");
    }
    // ensure y1 <= y2
    if (y1 > y2) {
        int i = y1;
        y1 = y2;
        y2 = i;
    }

    int diff = 0;

    int firstDivisibleBy4 = y1;
    if (firstDivisibleBy4 % 4 != 0) {
        firstDivisibleBy4 += 4 - (y1 % 4);
    }
    diff = y2 - firstDivisibleBy4 - 1;
    int divisibleBy4 = diff < 0 ? 0 : diff / 4 + 1;

    int firstDivisibleBy100 = y1;
    if (firstDivisibleBy100 % 100 != 0) {
        firstDivisibleBy100 += 100 - (firstDivisibleBy100 % 100);
    }
    diff = y2 - firstDivisibleBy100 - 1;
    int divisibleBy100 = diff < 0 ? 0 : diff / 100 + 1;

    int firstDivisibleBy400 = y1;
    if (firstDivisibleBy400 % 400 != 0) {
        firstDivisibleBy400 += 400 - (y1 % 400);
    }
    diff = y2 - firstDivisibleBy400 - 1;
    int divisibleBy400 = diff < 0 ? 0 : diff / 400 + 1;

    return divisibleBy4 - divisibleBy100 + divisibleBy400;
}


public static Calendar from(Date date) {

    Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();
    c.setTime(date);

    return c;
}


public static Calendar removeTime(Calendar c) {

    c.set(HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    c.set(MINUTE, 0);
    c.set(SECOND, 0);
    c.set(MILLISECOND, 0);

    return c;
}