If I run the following program, which parses two date strings referencing times 1 second apart and compares them: public static void main(String[] args) throws ParseException { SimpleDateFormat sf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"); String str3 = "1927-12-31 23:54:07"; String str4 = "1927-12-31 23:54:08"; Date sDt3 = sf.parse(str3); Date sDt4 = sf.parse(str4); long ld3 = sDt3.getTime()