LocalDate minusMonths() method in Java with Examples

The minusMonths() method of LocalDate class in Java is used to subtract the number of specified months from this LocalDate and return a copy of LocalDate.
This method subtracts the months field in the following steps:

  • subtract the months from the month-of-year field.
  • Check if the date after subtracting months is valid or not.
  • If date is invalid then method adjust the day-of-month to the last valid day.

For example, 2018-07-31 minus one month gives date 2018-06-31 but this is invalid result, so the last valid day of the month, 2018-06-30, is returned.This instance is immutable and unaffected by this method call.

Syntax:

public LocalDate minusMonths(long monthsToSubtract)

Parameters: This method accepts a single parameter monthsToSubtract which represents the months to subtract, may be negative.

Return value: This method returns a LocalDate based on this date with the months subtracted, not null.

Exception: This method throws DateTimeException if the result exceeds the supported date range.

Below programs illustrate the minusMonths() method:
Program 1:




// Java program to demonstrate
// LocalDate.minusMonths() method
  
import java.time.*;
  
public class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
  
        // create a LocalDate object
        LocalDate date
            = LocalDate.parse("2018-11-13");
  
        // print instance
        System.out.println("LocalDate before"
                           + " subtracting months: " + date);
  
        // subtract 15 months
        LocalDate returnvalue
            = date.minusMonths(15);
  
        // print result
        System.out.println("LocalDate after "
                           + " subtracting months: " + returnvalue);
    }
}


Output:

LocalDate before subtracting months: 2018-11-13
LocalDate after  subtracting months: 2017-08-13

Program 2:




// Java program to demonstrate
// LocalDate.minusMonths() method
  
import java.time.*;
  
public class GFG {
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
  
        // create a LocalDate object
        LocalDate date
            = LocalDate.parse("2018-12-31");
  
        // print instance
        System.out.println("LocalDate before"
                           + " subtracting months: " + date);
  
        // subtract 3 months
        LocalDate returnvalue
            = date.minusMonths(3);
  
        // print result
        System.out.println("LocalDate after "
                           + " subtracting months: " + returnvalue);
    }
}


Output:

LocalDate before subtracting months: 2018-12-31
LocalDate after  subtracting months: 2018-09-30

References:
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/10/docs/api/java/time/LocalDate.html#minusMonths(long)