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

Question

I want to record the time using System.currentTimeMillis() when a user begins something in my program. When he finishes, I will subtract the current Syste

Answer 1

This is easier in Java 9:

    Duration elapsedTime = Duration.ofMillis(millisDiff );
    String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
            "%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
            elapsedTime.toHours(),
            elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
            elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

This produces a string like 0 hours, 39 mins, 9 seconds.

If you want to round to whole seconds before formatting:

    elapsedTime = elapsedTime.plusMillis(500).truncatedTo(ChronoUnit.SECONDS);

To leave out the hours if they are 0:

    long hours = elapsedTime.toHours();
    String humanReadableElapsedTime;
    if (hours == 0) {
        humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
                "%d mins, %d seconds",
                elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
                elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

    } else {
        humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
                "%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
                hours,
                elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
                elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
    }

Now we can have for example 39 mins, 9 seconds.

To print minutes and seconds with leading zero to make them always two digits, just insert 02 into the relevant format specifiers, thus:

    String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
            "%d hours, %02d mins, %02d seconds",
            elapsedTime.toHours(),
            elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
            elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

Now we can have for example 0 hours, 39 mins, 09 seconds.

Answer 2

for Android below API 9

(String.format("%d hr %d min, %d sec", millis/(1000*60*60), (millis%(1000*60*60))/(1000*60), ((millis%(1000*60*60))%(1000*60))/1000)) 

Answer 3

There is a problem. When milliseconds is 59999, actually it is 1 minute but it will be computed as 59 seconds and 999 milliseconds is lost.

Here is a modified version based on previous answers, which can solve this loss:

public static String formatTime(long millis) {
    long seconds = Math.round((double) millis / 1000);
    long hours = TimeUnit.SECONDS.toHours(seconds);
    if (hours > 0)
        seconds -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toSeconds(hours);
    long minutes = seconds > 0 ? TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMinutes(seconds) : 0;
    if (minutes > 0)
        seconds -= TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(minutes);
    return hours > 0 ? String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d", hours, minutes, seconds) : String.format("%02d:%02d", minutes, seconds);
}

Answer 4

Firstly, System.currentTimeMillis() and Instant.now() are not ideal for timing. They both report the wall-clock time, which the computer doesn't know precisely, and which can move erratically, including going backwards if for example the NTP daemon corrects the system time. If your timing happens on a single machine then you should instead use System.nanoTime().

Secondly, from Java 8 onwards java.time.Duration is the best way to represent a duration:

long start = System.nanoTime();
// do things...
long end = System.nanoTime();
Duration duration = Duration.ofNanos(end - start);
System.out.println(duration); // Prints "PT18M19.511627776S"
System.out.printf("%d Hours %d Minutes %d Seconds%n",
        duration.toHours(), duration.toMinutes() % 60, duration.getSeconds() % 60);
// prints "0 Hours 18 Minutes 19 Seconds"

Answer 5

Use the java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit class:

String.format("%d min, %d sec", 
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) - 
    TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);

Note: TimeUnit is part of the Java 1.5 specification, but toMinutes was added as of Java 1.6.

To add a leading zero for values 0-9, just do:

String.format("%02d min, %02d sec", 
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) - 
    TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);

If TimeUnit or toMinutes are unsupported (such as on Android before API version 9), use the following equations:

int seconds = (int) (milliseconds / 1000) % 60 ;
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60)) % 60);
int hours   = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60*60)) % 24);
//etc...

Answer 6

Based on @siddhadev's answer, I wrote a function which converts milliseconds to a formatted string:

   /**
     * Convert a millisecond duration to a string format
     * 
     * @param millis A duration to convert to a string form
     * @return A string of the form "X Days Y Hours Z Minutes A Seconds".
     */
    public static String getDurationBreakdown(long millis) {
        if(millis < 0) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must be greater than zero!");
        }

        long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(millis);
        millis -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
        long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis);
        millis -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
        long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis);
        millis -= TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(minutes);
        long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis);

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(64);
        sb.append(days);
        sb.append(" Days ");
        sb.append(hours);
        sb.append(" Hours ");
        sb.append(minutes);
        sb.append(" Minutes ");
        sb.append(seconds);
        sb.append(" Seconds");

        return(sb.toString());
    }