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;        
   }

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)。

有很多方法可以找到日期和时间之间的区别。我所知道的最简单的方法之一是:

      Calendar calendar1 = Calendar.getInstance();
      Calendar calendar2 = Calendar.getInstance();
      calendar1.set(2012, 04, 02);
      calendar2.set(2012, 04, 04);
      long milsecs1= calendar1.getTimeInMillis();
      long milsecs2 = calendar2.getTimeInMillis();
      long diff = milsecs2 - milsecs1;
      long dsecs = diff / 1000;
      long dminutes = diff / (60 * 1000);
      long dhours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
      long ddays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);

      System.out.println("Your Day Difference="+ddays);

打印语句只是一个示例—您可以按照自己喜欢的方式格式化它。

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
}

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);

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";
    }
}