How can I calculate a time span in Java and format

Question

I want to take two times (in seconds since epoch) and show the difference between the two in formats like:

• 2 minutes
• 1 hour, 15 minutes
• 3 hours, 9 minutes
• 1 minute ago
• 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

How can I accomplish this??

Answer 1

I think you are looking for something like PrettyTime
PrettyTime is an OpenSource time formatting library. Completely customizable, it creates human readable, relative timestamps like those seen on Digg, Twitter, and Facebook.Its available in over 30 languages!
link: https://github.com/ocpsoft/prettytime

Can be used in android too

For example

System.out.println(p.format(new Date(System.currentTimeMillis() + 1000*60*10)));
        //prints: "10 minutes from now"

Answer 2

If your time-spans cross daylight-saving (summer-time) boundaries, do you want to report the number of days?

For example, 23:00 to 23:00 the next day is always a day but may be 23, 24 or 25 hours depending on whether the you cross a daylight-savings transition.

If you care about that, make sure you factor it into your choice.

Answer 3

Yup awakened the dead I have, but here's my improved implementation based on @mtim posted code, as this thread comes almost on top of the searches so I am messing with the sleepy hollow,

    public static String getFriendlyTime(Date dateTime) {
    StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
    Date current = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
    long diffInSeconds = (current.getTime() - dateTime.getTime()) / 1000;

    /*long diff[] = new long[]{0, 0, 0, 0};
    /* sec *  diff[3] = (diffInSeconds >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds);
    /* min *  diff[2] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds;
    /* hours *  diff[1] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 24 ? diffInSeconds % 24 : diffInSeconds;
    /* days * diff[0] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 24));
     */
    long sec = (diffInSeconds >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds);
    long min = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds;
    long hrs = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 24 ? diffInSeconds % 24 : diffInSeconds;
    long days = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 24)) >= 30 ? diffInSeconds % 30 : diffInSeconds;
    long months = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 30)) >= 12 ? diffInSeconds % 12 : diffInSeconds;
    long years = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 12));

    if (years > 0) {
        if (years == 1) {
            sb.append("a year");
        } else {
            sb.append(years + " years");
        }
        if (years <= 6 && months > 0) {
            if (months == 1) {
                sb.append(" and a month");
            } else {
                sb.append(" and " + months + " months");
            }
        }
    } else if (months > 0) {
        if (months == 1) {
            sb.append("a month");
        } else {
            sb.append(months + " months");
        }
        if (months <= 6 && days > 0) {
            if (days == 1) {
                sb.append(" and a day");
            } else {
                sb.append(" and " + days + " days");
            }
        }
    } else if (days > 0) {
        if (days == 1) {
            sb.append("a day");
        } else {
            sb.append(days + " days");
        }
        if (days <= 3 && hrs > 0) {
            if (hrs == 1) {
                sb.append(" and an hour");
            } else {
                sb.append(" and " + hrs + " hours");
            }
        }
    } else if (hrs > 0) {
        if (hrs == 1) {
            sb.append("an hour");
        } else {
            sb.append(hrs + " hours");
        }
        if (min > 1) {
            sb.append(" and " + min + " minutes");
        }
    } else if (min > 0) {
        if (min == 1) {
            sb.append("a minute");
        } else {
            sb.append(min + " minutes");
        }
        if (sec > 1) {
            sb.append(" and " + sec + " seconds");
        }
    } else {
        if (sec <= 1) {
            sb.append("about a second");
        } else {
            sb.append("about " + sec + " seconds");
        }
    }

    sb.append(" ago");


    /*String result = new String(String.format(
    "%d day%s, %d hour%s, %d minute%s, %d second%s ago",
    diff[0],
    diff[0] > 1 ? "s" : "",
    diff[1],
    diff[1] > 1 ? "s" : "",
    diff[2],
    diff[2] > 1 ? "s" : "",
    diff[3],
    diff[3] > 1 ? "s" : ""));*/
    return sb.toString();
}

It obviously can be improved. basically it tries to get the time span more friendly, there are a few limitation though i.e. it would behave strangely if the time passed (parameter) is in future, and its limited up to the days, hours and seconds only (months and years not handled, so that someone else can ;-).

sample outputs are:

• about a second ago
• 8 minutes and 34 seconds ago
• an hour and 4 minutes ago
• a day ago
• 29 days ago
• a year and 3 months ago

, cheers :D

EDIT: now supports months and years :P

Answer 4

    Date start = new Date(1167627600000L); // JANUARY_1_2007
    Date end = new Date(1175400000000L); // APRIL_1_2007


    long diffInSeconds = (end.getTime() - start.getTime()) / 1000;

    long diff[] = new long[] { 0, 0, 0, 0 };
    /* sec */diff[3] = (diffInSeconds >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds);
    /* min */diff[2] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 60 ? diffInSeconds % 60 : diffInSeconds;
    /* hours */diff[1] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 60)) >= 24 ? diffInSeconds % 24 : diffInSeconds;
    /* days */diff[0] = (diffInSeconds = (diffInSeconds / 24));

    System.out.println(String.format(
        "%d day%s, %d hour%s, %d minute%s, %d second%s ago",
        diff[0],
        diff[0] > 1 ? "s" : "",
        diff[1],
        diff[1] > 1 ? "s" : "",
        diff[2],
        diff[2] > 1 ? "s" : "",
        diff[3],
        diff[3] > 1 ? "s" : ""));

Answer 5

Recently I got the same requirement where I need a basic method to print duration. I was not having an option to use any third party library. So I just refined the idea of @mtim further.

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, ParseException {
        String since = "2017-02-24T04:44:05.601Z";
        DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS'Z'");
        TimeZone utc = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
        dateFormat.setTimeZone(utc);

        Date sinceDate = dateFormat.parse(since);
        Date now = new Date();
        long durationInSeconds  = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(now.getTime() - sinceDate.getTime());

        long SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE = 60;
        long MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR = 60;
        long HOURS_IN_A_DAY = 24;
        long DAYS_IN_A_MONTH = 30;
        long MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR = 12;

        long sec = (durationInSeconds >= SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE) ? durationInSeconds % SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE : durationInSeconds;
        long min = (durationInSeconds /= SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE) >= MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR ? durationInSeconds%MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR : durationInSeconds;
        long hrs = (durationInSeconds /= MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR) >= HOURS_IN_A_DAY ? durationInSeconds % HOURS_IN_A_DAY : durationInSeconds;
        long days = (durationInSeconds /= HOURS_IN_A_DAY) >= DAYS_IN_A_MONTH ? durationInSeconds % DAYS_IN_A_MONTH : durationInSeconds;
        long months = (durationInSeconds /=DAYS_IN_A_MONTH) >= MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR ? durationInSeconds % MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR : durationInSeconds;
        long years = (durationInSeconds /= MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR);

        String duration = getDuration(sec,min,hrs,days,months,years);
        System.out.println(duration);
    }
    private static String getDuration(long secs, long mins, long hrs, long days, long months, long years) {
        StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
        String EMPTY_STRING = "";
        sb.append(years > 0 ? years + (years > 1 ? " years " : " year "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append(months > 0 ? months + (months > 1 ? " months " : " month "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append(days > 0 ? days + (days > 1 ? " days " : " day "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append(hrs > 0 ? hrs + (hrs > 1 ? " hours " : " hour "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append(mins > 0 ? mins + (mins > 1 ? " mins " : " min "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append(secs > 0 ? secs + (secs > 1 ? " secs " : " secs "): EMPTY_STRING);
        sb.append("ago");
        return sb.toString();
    }

The output will be time gap (duration) printed in words e.g. 1 day 2 hours 51 mins 41 secs ago

Answer 6

some code that plays with date formatting... and time ago.

SimpleDateFormat curFormater = new SimpleDateFormat("EEE, dd MMM yyyy kk:mm:ss"); 
    try {
        Date dateObj = curFormater.parse(pubDate);

        SimpleDateFormat postFormater = new SimpleDateFormat("MMMM dd, yyyy ss:mm:hh");              
        String newDateStr = postFormater.format(dateObj); 
        Log.v("THE NEW DATE IS",newDateStr);            
        long pubdateinmilis = dateObj.getTime();            
        pubDate = (String) DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString(pubdateinmilis, System.currentTimeMillis(),DateUtils.HOUR_IN_MILLIS,DateUtils.FORMAT_ABBREV_RELATIVE);

    } catch (ParseException e) {
        // TODO Auto-generated catch block
        e.printStackTrace();
    }