You can solve the linear time by calculating the time difference (e.g. Date#getTime()) and returning the minimum:
public static Date getNearestDate(List<Date> dates, Date currentDate) {
long minDiff = -1, currentTime = currentDate.getTime();
Date minDate = null;
for (Date date : dates) {
long diff = Math.abs(currentTime - date.getTime());
if ((minDiff == -1) || (diff < minDiff)) {
minDiff = diff;
minDate = date;
}
}
return minDate;
}
[change]
Minor performance improvements.
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