Is there a better way of comparing dates

I am trying to compare two dates. The dates are imported from a database as strings and may or may not be null

This is my code

private String compareDates(String date1, String date2)
    {
        String earliestDate = null;
//        date2 is null and date1 is null
//            earliest = “not seen yet”
        if (date2 == null && date1 == null)
        {
            earliestDate = "not seen yet";
        }
//        date2 is null and date1 is not null
//            earliest = date1
        if (date2 == null && date1 != null)
        {
            earliestDate = date1;
        }
//        date2 is not null and date1 is null
//            earliest = date2
        if (date2 != null && date1 == null)
        {
            earliestDate = date2;
        }
//        date2 is not null and date1 is not null
//            compare dates
        if (date2 != null && date1 != null)
        {
            LocalDate LDdate1 = LocalDate.parse(date1);
            LocalDate LDdate2 = LocalDate.parse(date2);
            if (LDdate1.isBefore(LDdate2) || LDdate1.isEqual(LDdate2))
            {
                earliestDate = LDdate1.toString();
            }
            else
            {
                earliestDate = LDdate2.toString();
            }
        }
        return earliestDate;
    }

This code gives me the correct output, which is the earliest date, or "not yet seen" if both dates are null, but I wondered if there is a better / more efficient way of doing things.

I imagine using a switch statement is an option but would that be better or just a different way of doing it?

The data from the database only consists of about 200 dates so it isn't dealing with a lot of data, it's just that I'm interested in writing better code

If the dates are in standard local form and ordered YYYY MM DD like

"2018-01-24"

why bother parsing at all? Just do a String comparison. Approx 100 times faster and also easier.

    public static String compareDatesStr(String date1, String date2) {
        if (date1 == null)
            if (date2 == null)
                return "not seen yet";
            else
                return date2;
        else if (date2 == null)
            return date1;
        else
            return date1.compareTo(date2) > 0 ? date2 : date1;
    }

Some non-scientific performance comparison:

    private static String compareDatesParse(String date1, String date2) {
        String earliestDate;
        if (date1 == null) {
            if (date2 == null) {
                earliestDate = "not seen yet";
            }
            else {
                earliestDate = date2;
            }
        }
        else {
            if (date2 == null) {
                earliestDate = date1;
            }
            else {
                LocalDate LDdate1 = LocalDate.parse(date1);
                LocalDate LDdate2 = LocalDate.parse(date2);
                if (LDdate1.isAfter(LDdate2)) {
                    earliestDate = date2;
                }
                else {
                    earliestDate = date1;
                }
            }
        }
        return earliestDate;
    }

    public static void testDateComp(){
        String[] dates = {"2020-10-30", "2020-10-29", "1990-10-30", "2021-06-01", null};
        String result = null;
        int loops = 400000;
        long start, end = 0;
        // System.out.println("Runs: " + (dates.length*dates.length*loops));


        start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < loops; i++) {
            for (String date1:dates) {
                for (String date2:dates) {
                    result = compareDatesStr(date1, date2);
                }
            }
        }
        end = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("Runtime String: " + (end - start)+ "ms");

        start = System.currentTimeMillis();
        for (int i = 0; i < loops; i++) {
            for (String date1:dates) {
                for (String date2:dates) {
                    result = compareDatesParse(date1, date2);
                }
            }
        }
        end = System.currentTimeMillis();
        System.out.println("Runtime Parsing: " + (end - start) + "ms");
    }

10MM method executions:

Runtime String: 61ms
Runtime Parsing: 7361ms