public class DateWithComparison implements Comparable	// I implement my own basic Date class with the Comparable interface so that we
{														// can compare two Dates
	private int day, month, year;	// instance data as we expect
	
	public DateWithComparison()		// no-arg constructor, arbitrary chose the epoch for the date
	{
		day=1;
		month=1;
		year=1970;		// this date is known as the epoch in Unix/Linux systems
	}
	
	public DateWithComparison(int d, int m, int y)	// given the Date, set the values (note:  I was too lazy to implement constructor
	{												// that receives the Date as a String like "12/13/14")
		day=d;
		month=m;
		year=y;
	}
	
	// accessors
	public int getDay() {return day;}
	public int getMonth() {return month;}
	public int getYear() {return year;}
	// mutators - these could be implemented to test that the day is accurate given the month
	public void setDay(int d) {day=d;}		// or that the month is between 1 and 12
	public void setMonth(int m) {month=m;}
	public void setYear(int y) {year=y;}
	public String toString()				// toString to return the Date using typical format like "12/13/2014"
	{										// we could enhance this to write the Date like "December 13, 2014"
		return month + "/" + day + "/" + year;
	}
	
	// implement Comparable by a compareTo method
	public int compareTo(Object o)
	{
		int otherDay=((DateWithComparison)o).getDay();		// have to downcast o into a DateWithComparison
		int otherMonth=((DateWithComparison)o).getMonth();
		int otherYear=((DateWithComparison)o).getYear();
		if(year>otherYear) return 1;						// test the years first, if this year < other year then this Date < other
		else if(year<otherYear) return -1;
		else if(month>otherMonth) return 1;					// years are the same, test months
		else if(month<otherMonth) return -1;
		else if(day>otherDay) return 1;						// years and months are the same, test day
		else if(day<otherDay) return -1;
		else return 0;										// all were equal, return 0
	}
}