How to do date/time comparison

For comparison between two times use time.Sub()

// utc life
loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("UTC")

// setup a start and end time
createdAt := time.Now().In(loc).Add(1 * time.Hour)
expiresAt := time.Now().In(loc).Add(4 * time.Hour)

// get the diff
diff := expiresAt.Sub(createdAt)
fmt.Printf("Lifespan is %+v", diff)

The program outputs:

Lifespan is 3h0m0s

http://play.golang.org/p/bbxeTtd4L6

Use the time package to work with time information in Go.

Time instants can be compared using the Before, After, and Equal methods. The Sub method subtracts two instants, producing a Duration. The Add method adds a Time and a Duration, producing a Time.

Play example:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "time"
)

func inTimeSpan(start, end, check time.Time) bool {
    return check.After(start) && check.Before(end)
}

func main() {
    start, _ := time.Parse(time.RFC822, "01 Jan 15 10:00 UTC")
    end, _ := time.Parse(time.RFC822, "01 Jan 16 10:00 UTC")

    in, _ := time.Parse(time.RFC822, "01 Jan 15 20:00 UTC")
    out, _ := time.Parse(time.RFC822, "01 Jan 17 10:00 UTC")

    if inTimeSpan(start, end, in) {
        fmt.Println(in, "is between", start, "and", end, ".")
    }

    if !inTimeSpan(start, end, out) {
        fmt.Println(out, "is not between", start, "and", end, ".")
    }
}

For case when your interval's end date doesn't contains hours like "from 2017-01-01 to whole day of 2017-01-16" it's better to adjust interval's end to midnight of the next day to include all milliseconds like this:

if now.After(start) && now.Before(end.Add(24 * time.Hour).Truncate(24 * time.Hour)) {
    ...
}