Java Time elapsed in days, hours, minutes, seconds

Two Java examples show you how to print the elapsed time in days, hours, minutes and seconds format.

1. Standard JDK Date APIs

You need to calculate the elapsed time manually.

package com.mkyong.dateUtils;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateTimeUtils {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
	  DateTimeUtils obj = new DateTimeUtils();
	  SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = 
                new SimpleDateFormat("dd/M/yyyy hh:mm:ss");
	  try {
		Date date1 = simpleDateFormat.parse("10/10/2013 11:30:10");
		Date date2 = simpleDateFormat.parse("13/10/2013 20:35:55");
		obj.printDifference(date1, date2);
	  } catch (ParseException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	//1 minute = 60 seconds
	//1 hour = 60 x 60 = 3600
	//1 day = 3600 x 24 = 86400
	public void printDifference(Date startDate, Date endDate){
		//milliseconds
		long different = endDate.getTime() - startDate.getTime();
		System.out.println("startDate : " + startDate);
		System.out.println("endDate : "+ endDate);
		System.out.println("different : " + different);
		long secondsInMilli = 1000;
		long minutesInMilli = secondsInMilli * 60;
		long hoursInMilli = minutesInMilli * 60;
		long daysInMilli = hoursInMilli * 24;
		long elapsedDays = different / daysInMilli;
		different = different % daysInMilli;
		long elapsedHours = different / hoursInMilli;
		different = different % hoursInMilli;
		long elapsedMinutes = different / minutesInMilli;
		different = different % minutesInMilli;
		long elapsedSeconds = different / secondsInMilli;
		System.out.printf(
		    "%d days, %d hours, %d minutes, %d seconds%n", 
		    elapsedDays,
		    elapsedHours, elapsedMinutes, elapsedSeconds);

Output

startDate : Thu Oct 10 11:30:10 SGT 2013
endDate : Sun Oct 13 20:35:55 SGT 2013
different : 291945000
3 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes, 45 seconds

2. Joda Time Example

Joda-time is the prefer Java date and time library, it contains APIs to calculate the elapsed time, and get it in years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds format.

package com.mkyong.dateUtils;
import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import org.joda.time.Interval;
import org.joda.time.Period;
public class DateTimeUtils {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
	  DateTimeUtils obj = new DateTimeUtils();
	  SimpleDateFormat simpleDateFormat = 
               new SimpleDateFormat("dd/M/yyyy hh:mm:ss");
	  try {
		Date date1 = simpleDateFormat.parse("10/10/2013 11:30:10");
		Date date2 = simpleDateFormat.parse("13/11/2014 20:35:55");
		obj.printDifference(date1, date2);	
	  } catch (ParseException e) {
		e.printStackTrace();
	public void printDifference(Date startDate, Date endDate){
	  Interval interval = 
               new Interval(startDate.getTime(), endDate.getTime());
	  Period period = interval.toPeriod();
          System.out.printf(
	       "%d years, %d months, %d days, %d hours, %d minutes, %d seconds%n", 
	       period.getYears(), period.getMonths(), period.getDays(),
	       period.getHours(), period.getMinutes(), period.getSeconds());

Output

1 years, 1 months, 3 days, 9 hours, 5 minutes, 45 seconds

References

1. Java Date API
2. Joda-Time – Java date and time API
3. How To Calculate Elapsed / Execute Time In Java