一个稍微简单一点的选择:

System.currentTimeMillis() - oldDate.getTime()

至于“更好”，你到底需要什么?将时间持续时间表示为小时数和天数等的问题是，由于日期的复杂性，它可能导致不准确和错误的期望(例如，由于夏令时，一天可能有23或25小时)。

如果你想修复跨越夏时制边界的日期范围的问题(例如，一个日期在夏季，另一个日期在冬季)，你可以使用这个来获得天数的差异:

public static long calculateDifferenceInDays(Date start, Date end, Locale locale) {
    Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance(locale);

    cal.setTime(start);
    cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    long startTime = cal.getTimeInMillis();

    cal.setTime(end);
    cal.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
    cal.set(Calendar.MILLISECOND, 0);
    long endTime = cal.getTimeInMillis();

    // calculate the offset if one of the dates is in summer time and the other one in winter time
    TimeZone timezone = cal.getTimeZone();
    int offsetStart = timezone.getOffset(startTime);
    int offsetEnd = timezone.getOffset(endTime);
    int offset = offsetEnd - offsetStart;

    return TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(endTime - startTime + offset);
}

最好的办法是

(Date1-Date2)/86 400 000 

这个数字是一天的毫秒数。

一个日期和另一个日期的差异以毫秒为单位。

在双变量中收集答案。

如果你需要一个格式化的返回字符串 “2天03h 42m 07s”，试试这个:

public String fill2(int value)
{
    String ret = String.valueOf(value);

    if (ret.length() < 2)
        ret = "0" + ret;            
    return ret;
}

public String get_duration(Date date1, Date date2)
{                   
    TimeUnit timeUnit = TimeUnit.SECONDS;

    long diffInMilli = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
    long s = timeUnit.convert(diffInMilli, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);

    long days = s / (24 * 60 * 60);
    long rest = s - (days * 24 * 60 * 60);
    long hrs = rest / (60 * 60);
    long rest1 = rest - (hrs * 60 * 60);
    long min = rest1 / 60;      
    long sec = s % 60;

    String dates = "";
    if (days > 0) dates = days + " Days ";

    dates += fill2((int) hrs) + "h ";
    dates += fill2((int) min) + "m ";
    dates += fill2((int) sec) + "s ";

    return dates;
}

这是另一个样本。基本上适用于用户定义的模式。

   public static LinkedHashMap<String, Object> checkDateDiff(DateTimeFormatter dtfObj, String startDate, String endDate)
   {
          Map<String, Object> dateDiffMap = new HashMap<String, Object>();
          DateTime start = DateTime.parse(startDate,dtfObj);
          DateTime end = DateTime.parse(endDate,dtfObj);
          Interval interval = new Interval(start, end);
          Period period = interval.toPeriod();

          dateDiffMap.put("ISO-8601_PERIOD_FORMAT", period);
          dateDiffMap.put("YEAR", period.getYears());
          dateDiffMap.put("MONTH", period.getMonths());
          dateDiffMap.put("WEEK", period.getWeeks());
          dateDiffMap.put("DAY", period.getWeeks());             
          dateDiffMap.put("HOUR", period.getHours());
          dateDiffMap.put("MINUTE", period.getMinutes());
          dateDiffMap.put("SECOND", period.getSeconds());

          return dateDiffMap;        
   }

public static String getDifferenceBtwTime(Date dateTime) {

    long timeDifferenceMilliseconds = new Date().getTime() - dateTime.getTime();
    long diffSeconds = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / 1000;
    long diffMinutes = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 1000);
    long diffHours = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000);
    long diffDays = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24);
    long diffWeeks = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 7);
    long diffMonths = (long) (timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 30.41666666));
    long diffYears = (long)(timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24 * 365));

    if (diffSeconds < 1) {
        return "one sec ago";
    } else if (diffMinutes < 1) {
        return diffSeconds + " seconds ago";
    } else if (diffHours < 1) {
        return diffMinutes + " minutes ago";
    } else if (diffDays < 1) {
        return diffHours + " hours ago";
    } else if (diffWeeks < 1) {
        return diffDays + " days ago";
    } else if (diffMonths < 1) {
        return diffWeeks + " weeks ago";
    } else if (diffYears < 12) {
        return diffMonths + " months ago";
    } else {
        return diffYears + " years ago";
    }
}