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;  
}  

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 );

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;
}

如果你用d1和d2作为日期，最好的解决方案可能是这样的:

int days1 = d1.getTime()/(60*60*24*1000);//find the number of days since the epoch.
int days2 = d2.getTime()/(60*60*24*1000);

然后说

days2-days1

或者其他

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);

让我来看看Joda Interval和Days之间的差异:

DateTime start = new DateTime(2012, 2, 6, 10, 44, 51, 0);
DateTime end = new DateTime(2012, 2, 6, 11, 39, 47, 1);
Interval interval = new Interval(start, end);
Period period = interval.toPeriod();
System.out.println(period.getYears() + " years, " + period.getMonths() + " months, " + period.getWeeks() + " weeks, " + period.getDays() + " days");
System.out.println(period.getHours() + " hours, " + period.getMinutes() + " minutes, " + period.getSeconds() + " seconds ");
//Result is:
//0 years, 0 months, *1 weeks, 1 days*
//0 hours, 54 minutes, 56 seconds 

//Period can set PeriodType,such as PeriodType.yearMonthDay(),PeriodType.yearDayTime()...
Period p = new Period(start, end, PeriodType.yearMonthDayTime());
System.out.println(p.getYears() + " years, " + p.getMonths() + " months, " + p.getWeeks() + " weeks, " + p.getDays() + "days");
System.out.println(p.getHours() + " hours, " + p.getMinutes() + " minutes, " + p.getSeconds() + " seconds ");
//Result is:
//0 years, 0 months, *0 weeks, 8 days*
//0 hours, 54 minutes, 56 seconds