I'm trying to figure out dates in Java and am completely lost. Do I use Date? Use epoch time? Gregorian Calendar? Let's say I have a want to store a date, then later compare it to other dates. For example, I've stored a date "10/27/2013". Then, I want to later compare it to dates entered later to see if a later date is identical to "10/27/2013", or if just the day, year, or month matches? What's the best way to do this?