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;
}

不使用标准API，不行。你可以这样做:

class Duration {
    private final TimeUnit unit;
    private final long length;
    // ...
}

或者你可以使用Joda:

DateTime a = ..., b = ...;
Duration d = new Duration(a, b);

由于这里所有的答案都是正确的，但使用传统java或第三方库，如joda或类似的，我将放弃使用新java的另一种方式。Java 8及以后版本中的时间类。参见Oracle教程。

使用LocalDate和ChronoUnit:

LocalDate d1 = LocalDate.of(2017, 5, 1);
LocalDate d2 = LocalDate.of(2017, 5, 18);

long days = ChronoUnit.DAYS.between(d1, d2);
System.out.println( days );

int diffInDays = (int)( (newerDate.getTime() - olderDate.getTime()) 
                 / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24) )

请注意，这适用于UTC日期，因此如果查看本地日期，差异可能会减小一天。由于夏时制的原因，要让它在本地日期上正确工作，需要一种完全不同的方法。

在涉猎了所有其他答案之后，为了保持Java 7 Date类型，但使用Java 8 diff方法更精确/标准，

public static long daysBetweenDates(Date d1, Date d2) {
    Instant instant1 = d1.toInstant();
    Instant instant2 = d2.toInstant();
    long diff = ChronoUnit.DAYS.between(instant1, instant2);
    return diff;
}

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;
}