How to compare dates in Java using LocalDate?

In Java, the `compareTo()` method of the `LocalDate` class can be used to compare the sizes of two `LocalDate` objects. This method returns an integer that represents the comparison result of the two dates. The specific comparison rules are as follows: 1. If the first date is earlier than the second date, a negative integer is returned. 2. If the first date is later than the second date, a positive integer is returned. 3. If the two dates are equal, 0 is returned. Below is an example code for comparing dates.

import java.time.LocalDate;
public class DateComparisonExample {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        LocalDate date1 = LocalDate.of(2022, 1, 1);
        LocalDate date2 = LocalDate.of(2021, 12, 31);
        int result = date1.compareTo(date2);
        if (result < 0) {
            System.out.println("date1 is before date2");
        } else if (result > 0) {
            System.out.println("date1 is after date2");
        } else {
            System.out.println("date1 is equal to date2");
        }
    }
}

Output result:

date1 is after date2

In the example above, we compared the sizes of the two date objects `date1` and `date2`, and based on the comparison result, we output the corresponding message.