Calculate date/time difference in java [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• How to convert Milliseconds to “X mins, x seconds” in Java? 25 answers

I want to calculate difference between 2 dates in hours/minutes/seconds.

I have a slight problem with my code here it is :

String dateStart = "11/03/14 09:29:58";
String dateStop = "11/03/14 09:33:43";

// Custom date format
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");  

Date d1 = null;
Date d2 = null;
try {
    d1 = format.parse(dateStart);
    d2 = format.parse(dateStop);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}    

// Get msec from each, and subtract.
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000;         
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000);         
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);                      
System.out.println("Time in seconds: " + diffSeconds + " seconds.");         
System.out.println("Time in minutes: " + diffMinutes + " minutes.");         
System.out.println("Time in hours: " + diffHours + " hours."); 

This should produce :

Time in seconds: 45 seconds.
Time in minutes: 3 minutes.
Time in hours: 0 hours.

However I get this result :

Time in seconds: 225 seconds.
Time in minutes: 3 minutes.
Time in hours: 0 hours.

Can anyone see what I'm doing wrong here ?

Answer 1

long diffSeconds = (diff / 1000)%60;
try this and let me know if it works correctly...

Answer 2

This is more of a maths problem than a java problem basically.

The result you receive is correct. This because 225 seconds is 3 minutes (when doing an integral division). What you want is the this:

• divide by 1000 to get the number of seconds -> rest is milliseconds
• divide that by 60 to get number of minutes -> rest are seconds
• divide that by 60 to get number of hours -> rest are minutes

or in java:

int millis = diff % 1000;
diff/=1000;
int seconds = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
int minutes = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
hours = diff;

Answer 3

I would prefer to use suggested java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit class.

long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();//as given

long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff); 

Answer 4

Try this for a friendly representation of time differences (in milliseconds):

String friendlyTimeDiff(long timeDifferenceMilliseconds) {
    long diffSeconds = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / 1000;
    long diffMinutes = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 1000);
    long diffHours = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000);
    long diffDays = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24);
    long diffWeeks = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 7);
    long diffMonths = (long) (timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 30.41666666));
    long diffYears = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / ((long)60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 365);

    if (diffSeconds < 1) {
        return "less than a second";
    } else if (diffMinutes < 1) {
        return diffSeconds + " seconds";
    } else if (diffHours < 1) {
        return diffMinutes + " minutes";
    } else if (diffDays < 1) {
        return diffHours + " hours";
    } else if (diffWeeks < 1) {
        return diffDays + " days";
    } else if (diffMonths < 1) {
        return diffWeeks + " weeks";
    } else if (diffYears < 1) {
        return diffMonths + " months";
    } else {
        return diffYears + " years";
    }
}

Answer 5

Joda-Time

Joda-Time 2.3 library offers already-debugged code for this chore.

Joad-Time includes three classes to represent a span of time: Period, Interval, and Duration. Period tracks a span as a number of months, days, hours, etc. (not tied to the timeline).

// © 2013 Basil Bourque. This source code may be used freely forever by anyone taking full responsibility for doing so.

// Specify a time zone rather than rely on default.
// Necessary to handle Daylight Saving Time (DST) and other anomalies.
DateTimeZone timeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Montreal" );

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss" ).withZone( timeZone ); 

DateTime dateTimeStart = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:29:58" );
DateTime dateTimeStop = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:33:43" );
Period period = new Period( dateTimeStart, dateTimeStop );

PeriodFormatter periodFormatter = PeriodFormat.getDefault();
String output = periodFormatter.print( period );

System.out.println( "output: " + output );

When run…

output: 3 minutes and 45 seconds

Answer 6

Well, I'll try yet another code sample:

/**
 * Calculates the number of FULL days between to dates
 * @param startDate must be before endDate
 * @param endDate must be after startDate
 * @return number of day between startDate and endDate
 */
public static int daysBetween(Calendar startDate, Calendar endDate) {
    long start = startDate.getTimeInMillis();
    long end = endDate.getTimeInMillis();
    // It's only approximation due to several bugs (@see java.util.Date) and different precision in Calendar chosen
    // by user (ex. day is time-quantum).
    int presumedDays = (int) TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(end - start);
    startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, presumedDays);
    // if we still didn't reach endDate try it with the step of one day
    if (startDate.before(endDate)) {
        startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
        ++presumedDays;
    }
    // if we crossed endDate then we must go back, because the boundary day haven't completed yet
    if (startDate.after(endDate)) {
        --presumedDays;
    }
    return presumedDays;
}