Java .after()

The Date.after() method checks whether a date occurs after a specified date and returns a boolean value.

Syntax

firstDate.after(secondDate)

The Date.after() takes only one parameter:

• secondDate: A Date object to be compared chronologically with the first date.

It returns true if the firstDate is after the secondDate and returns false if the firstDate is before the secondDate. However, if the secondDate is null, it will raise a NullPointerException.

Example

The following example shows the implementation of Date.after():

import java.util.Date;

public class Main {
   public static void main(String[] args) {

      Date firstDate = new Date(2020, 1, 18);
      Date secondDate = new Date(2020, 1, 19);
      Date thirdDate = null;

      System.out.println("Is secondDate after firstDate: " + secondDate.after(firstDate));
      System.out.println("Is firstDate after secondDate: " + firstDate.after(secondDate));
      System.out.println("Is thirdDate after firstDate:" + firstDate.after(thirdDate));
   }
}

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard

The output will be:

Is secondDate after firstDate: true
Is firstDate after secondDate: false
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
        at java.base/java.util.Date.getMillisOf(Date.java:956)
        at java.base/java.util.Date.after(Date.java:929)
        at Main.main(Main.java:12)

Copy to clipboard
Copy to clipboard