Timer - counting down and displaying result in specific format [duplicate]

Answer 1

DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy MM dd");
String text = date.toString(formatter);
LocalDate date = LocalDate.parse(text, formatter);

more info here

or, if you're not using java8 here

Answer 2

Joda-Time

If your goal is the words spelling out "1 day, 13 hours, and 43 minutes", then Joda-Time has a class exactly for that purpose: PeriodFormatterBuilder. Using that class is easier that trying to write your own. See examples in other answers such as this one and this one.

java.time.*

The new java.time.* package in Java 8 may have something similar given that it is inspired by Joda-Time. Perhaps the DateTimeFormatterBuilder class in the java.time.format package.