How to find Max Date in List<Object>?

Consider a class User

public class User{
  int userId;
  String name;
  Date date;
}

Now I have a List<User> of size 20, how can I find the max date in the list without using manual iterator?

Since you are asking for lambdas, you can use the following syntax with Java 8:

Date maxDate = list.stream().map(u -> u.date).max(Date::compareTo).get();

or, if you have a getter for the date:

Date maxDate = list.stream().map(User::getDate).max(Date::compareTo).get();

A small improvement from the accepted answer is to do the null check and also get full object.

public class DateComparator {

public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException {
	SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd");

	List<Employee> employees = new ArrayList<>();
	employees.add(new Employee(1, "name1", addDays(new Date(), 1)));
	employees.add(new Employee(2, "name2", addDays(new Date(), 3)));
	employees.add(new Employee(3, "name3", addDays(new Date(), 6)));
	employees.add(new Employee(4, "name4", null));
	employees.add(new Employee(5, "name5", addDays(new Date(), 4)));
	employees.add(new Employee(6, "name6", addDays(new Date(), 5)));
	System.out.println(employees);
	Date maxDate = employees.stream().filter(emp -> emp.getJoiningDate() != null).map(Employee::getJoiningDate).max(Date::compareTo).get();
	System.out.println(format.format(maxDate));
	//Comparator<Employee> comparator = (p1, p2) -> p1.getJoiningDate().compareTo(p2.getJoiningDate());
	Comparator<Employee> comparator = Comparator.comparing(Employee::getJoiningDate);
	Employee maxDatedEmploye = employees.stream().filter(emp -> emp.getJoiningDate() != null).max(comparator).get();
	System.out.println(" maxDatedEmploye : " + maxDatedEmploye);
	
	Employee minDatedEmployee = employees.stream().filter(emp -> emp.getJoiningDate() != null).min(comparator).get();
	System.out.println(" minDatedEmployee : " + minDatedEmployee);
	
}

public static Date addDays(Date date, int days) {
	Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
	cal.setTime(date);
	cal.add(Calendar.DATE, days); // minus number would decrement the days
	return cal.getTime();
}
}

You would get below results :

 [Employee [empId=1, empName=name1, joiningDate=Wed Mar 21 13:33:09 EDT 2018],
Employee [empId=2, empName=name2, joiningDate=Fri Mar 23 13:33:09 EDT 2018],
Employee [empId=3, empName=name3, joiningDate=Mon Mar 26 13:33:09 EDT 2018],
Employee [empId=4, empName=name4, joiningDate=null],
Employee [empId=5, empName=name5, joiningDate=Sat Mar 24 13:33:09 EDT 2018],
Employee [empId=6, empName=name6, joiningDate=Sun Mar 25 13:33:09 EDT 2018]
]
2018-03-26
 maxDatedEmploye : Employee [empId=3, empName=name3, joiningDate=Mon Mar 26 13:33:09 EDT 2018]

 minDatedEmployee : Employee [empId=1, empName=name1, joiningDate=Wed Mar 21 13:33:09 EDT 2018]

Update : What if list itself is empty ?

		Date maxDate = employees.stream().filter(emp -> emp.getJoiningDate() != null).map(Employee::getJoiningDate).max(Date::compareTo).orElse(new Date());
	System.out.println(format.format(maxDate));
	Comparator<Employee> comparator = Comparator.comparing(Employee::getJoiningDate);
	Employee maxDatedEmploye = employees.stream().filter(emp -> emp.getJoiningDate() != null).max(comparator).orElse(null);
	System.out.println(" maxDatedEmploye : " + maxDatedEmploye);

Comparator<User> cmp = new Comparator<User>() {
    @Override
    public int compare(User user1, User user2) {
        return user1.date.compareTo(user2.date);
    }
};

Collections.max(list, cmp);

LocalDate maxDate = dates.stream()
                            .max( Comparator.comparing( LocalDate::toEpochDay ) )
                            .get();
 
LocalDate minDate = dates.stream()
                            .min( Comparator.comparing( LocalDate::toEpochDay ) )
                            .get();

Just use Kotlin!

val list = listOf(user1, user2, user3)
val maxDate = list.maxBy { it.date }?.date

troubleshooting-friendly style

You should not call .get() directly. Optional<>, that Stream::max returns, was designed to benefit from .orElse... inline handling.

> If you are sure your arguments have their size of 2+:

list.stream()
    .map(u -> u.date)
    .max(Date::compareTo)
    .orElseThrow(() -> new IllegalArgumentException("Expected 'list' to be of size: >= 2. Was: 0"));

> If you support empty lists, then return some default value, for example:

list.stream()
    .map(u -> u.date)
    .max(Date::compareTo)
    .orElse(new Date(Long.MIN_VALUE));

CREDITS to: @JimmyGeers, @assylias from the accepted answer.

self-explanatory style

import static java.util.Comparator.naturalOrder;
...

    list.stream()
        .map(User::getDate)
        .max(naturalOrder())
        .orElse(null)          // replace with .orElseThrow() is the list cannot be empty