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Java Instant Class | isBefore() Method with Example

Instant Class isBefore() method: Here, we are going to learn about the isBefore() method of Instant Class with its syntax and example.
Submitted by Preeti Jain, on May 25, 2020

Instant Class isBefore() method

• isBefore() method is available in java.time package.
• isBefore() method is used to check whether this Instant value comes before the given Instant (ins) value or not.
• isBefore() method is a non-static method, it is accessible with the class object only and if we try to access the method with the class name then we will get an error.
• isBefore() method may throw an exception at the time of checking the status.
  NullPointerException: This exception may throw when the given parameter value is null.

Syntax:

    public boolean isBefore(Instant ins);

Parameter(s):

• Instant ins – represents the Instant object to be compared with this Instant.

Return value:

The return type of this method is boolean, it returns true when this Instant value comes before the given Instant value otherwise it returns false.

Example:

// Java program to demonstrate the example 
// of boolean isBefore(Instant ins) method 
// of Instant

import java.time.*;

public class IsBeforeOfInstant {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        // Instantiates two Instant
        Instant ins1 = Instant.parse("2006-04-03T05:10:15.00Z");
        Instant ins2 = Instant.now();

        // Display ins1,ins2
        System.out.println("Instant ins1 and ins2: ");
        System.out.println("ins1: " + ins1);
        System.out.println("ins2: " + ins2);

        System.out.println();

        // Here, this method checks whether this
        // Instant (ins1) comes before the given
        // Instant (ins2) or not i.e. here it
        // returns true because ins1 comes before the
        // given ins2
        boolean status = ins1.isBefore(ins2);

        // Display status
        System.out.println("ins1.isBefore(ins2): " + status);

        // Here, this method checks whether this
        // Instant (ins2) comes before the given
        // Instant (ins1) or not i.e. here it
        // returns false because ins2 comes after the
        // given ins1
        status = ins2.isBefore(ins1);

        // Display status
        System.out.println("ins2.isBefore(ins1): " + status);
    }
}

Output

Instant ins1 and ins2: 
ins1: 2006-04-03T05:10:15Z
ins2: 2020-05-25T22:44:38.120972Z

ins1.isBefore(ins2): true
ins2.isBefore(ins1): false