How to check if Date parameter has value in Java

Question

I am moving from C # to java and I am having problems with the basics. I expect a variable in my method of type Date, and I need to check if the date was set or not. How to do it in Java? using equal or == ??

Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

I suspect you want:

public void foo(Date date) { if (date != null) { // Use date here } } 

Please note that unlike DateTime in .NET, java.util.Date is a class (and therefore a reference type) ... Java does not have “custom” value types.

Also note that this is not exactly the same as the variable being “set”. For instance:

 Date date = new Date(); date = null; 

Do you consider this variable “set” or not? It must have a null reference as its value. I suspect you want to know if the variable has a value related to the object, but this is not exactly the same.

Answer 2

 if ( myDate != null){ //do your stuff here }