Compare time and date

Sometime you will need to know, with 2 dates objects, if there are corresponding to the same date, or find which date is after the other.

In Go, there is 4 way to compare dates:

• date1 == date2, returns true when the 2 are the same moment
• date1 != date2, returns true when the 2 are different moment
• date1.Before(date2), returns true when the first is strictly before the second
• date1.After(date2), returns true when the first is strictly after the second

WARNING: When the 2 Time to compare are the same (or correspond to the exact same date), functions After and Before will return false, as a date is neither before nor after itself - date1 == date1, returns true - date1 != date1, returns false - date1.After(date1), returns false - date1.Before(date1), returns false

TIPS: If you need to know if a date is before or equal another one, just need to combine the 4 operators - date1 == date2 || date1.After(date2), returns true when date1 is after or equal date2 or using ! (date1.Before(date2)) - date1 == date2 || date1.Before(date2), returns true when date1 is before or equal date2 or using !(date1.After(date2))

Some examples to see how to use:

// Init 2 dates for example
    var date1 = time.Date(2009, time.November, 10, 23, 0, 0, 0, time.UTC)
    var date2 = time.Date(2017, time.July, 25, 16, 22, 42, 123, time.UTC)
    var date3 = time.Date(2017, time.July, 25, 16, 22, 42, 123, time.UTC)

    bool1 := date1.Before(date2) // true, because date1 is before date2
    bool2 := date1.After(date2) // false, because date1 is not after date2

    bool3 := date2.Before(date1) // false, because date2 is not before date1
    bool4 := date2.After(date1) // true, because date2 is after date1

    bool5 := date1 == date2 // false, not the same moment
    bool6 := date1 == date3 // true, different objects but representing the exact same time

    bool7 := date1 != date2 // true, different moments
    bool8 := date1 != date3 // false, not different moments

    bool9 := date1.After(date3) // false, because date1 is not after date3 (that are the same)
    bool10:= date1.Before(date3) // false, because date1 is not before date3 (that are the same)

    bool11 := !(date1.Before(date3)) // true, because date1 is not before date3
    bool12 := !(date1.After(date3)) // true, because date1 is not after date3