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
}

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;
}

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 

不幸的是，JDK Date API被严重破坏了。我推荐使用Joda Time库。

Joda Time有一个时间间隔的概念:

Interval interval = new Interval(oldTime, new Instant());

编辑:顺便说一下，Joda有两个概念:Interval表示两个时间瞬间之间的时间间隔(表示上午8点到上午10点之间的时间)，Duration表示没有实际时间边界的时间长度(例如表示两个小时!)

如果你只关心时间比较，大多数Date实现(包括JDK)实现了Comparable接口，允许你使用Comparable. compareto ()

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);

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.");
    }
}