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

Joda-Time

Using Joda-Time:

DateTime startTime = new DateTime();

// do something

DateTime endTime = new DateTime();
Duration duration = new Duration(startTime, endTime);
Period period = duration.toPeriod().normalizedStandard(PeriodType.time());
System.out.println(PeriodFormat.getDefault().print(period));

Answer 2

Shortest solution:

Here's probably the shortest which also deals with time zones.

System.out.printf("%tT", millis-TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset());

Which outputs for example:

00:18:32

Explanation:

%tT is the time formatted for the 24-hour clock as %tH:%tM:%tS.

%tT also accepts longs as input, so no need to create a Date. printf() will simply print the time specified in milliseconds, but in the current time zone therefore we have to subtract the raw offset of the current time zone so that 0 milliseconds will be 0 hours and not the time offset value of the current time zone.

Note #1: If you need the result as a String, you can get it like this:

String t = String.format("%tT", millis-TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset());

Note #2: This only gives correct result if millis is less than a day because the day part is not included in the output.

Answer 3

If you know the time difference would be less than an hour, then you can use following code:

    Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();

    c2.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 51);

    long diff = c2.getTimeInMillis() - c1.getTimeInMillis();

    c2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss");
    long diff1 = c2.getTimeInMillis() + diff;
    System.out.println(df.format(new Date(diff1)));

It will result to: 51:00

Answer 4

I modified @MyKuLLSKI 's answer and added plurlization support. I took out seconds because I didn't need them, though feel free to re-add it if you need it.

public static String intervalToHumanReadableTime(int intervalMins) {

    if(intervalMins <= 0) {
        return "0";
    } else {

        long intervalMs = intervalMins * 60 * 1000;

        long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(intervalMs);
        intervalMs -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
        long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(intervalMs);
        intervalMs -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
        long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(intervalMs);

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(12);

        if (days >= 1) {
            sb.append(days).append(" day").append(pluralize(days)).append(", ");
        }

        if (hours >= 1) {
            sb.append(hours).append(" hour").append(pluralize(hours)).append(", ");
        }

        if (minutes >= 1) {
            sb.append(minutes).append(" minute").append(pluralize(minutes));
        } else {
            sb.delete(sb.length()-2, sb.length()-1);
        }

        return(sb.toString());          

    }

}

public static String pluralize(long val) {
    return (Math.round(val) > 1 ? "s" : "");
}

Answer 5

Uhm... how many milliseconds are in a second? And in a minute? Division is not that hard.

int seconds = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) % 60);
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) / 60);

Continue like that for hours, days, weeks, months, year, decades, whatever.

Answer 6

Just to add more info if you want to format like: HH:mm:ss

0 <= HH <= infinite

0 <= mm < 60

0 <= ss < 60

use this:

int h = (int) ((startTimeInMillis / 1000) / 3600);
int m = (int) (((startTimeInMillis / 1000) / 60) % 60);
int s = (int) ((startTimeInMillis / 1000) % 60);

I just had this issue now and figured this out