Compute the difference between two dates public class DateDiff { public static void main(String[] av) { /** The ending date. This value * doubles as a Y2K countdown time. */ Date d1 = new GregorianCalendar(1999,11,31,23,59).getTime(); /** Today's date */ Date d2 = new Date(); // Get msec from each, and subtract. long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime(); System.out.println("Difference between " + d2 + "\n" + "\tand Y2K is " + (diff / (1000*60*60*24)) + " days."); } }