Question

An absolute time is given in stored in this format:

time = "000:03:07.447"

How can this string be converted to seconds in an elegant way?

Update:

As suggested by Harper89

3600*#1 + 60*#2 + #3 & @@ ToExpression[StringSplit["000:00:04.424", ":"]]

Szabolcs suggested to use AbsoluteTime
From Mathematica help: AbsoluteTime gives the total number of seconds since the beginning of January 1, 1900, in your time zone.

AbsoluteTime[{"000:03:07.447", {"Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second", 
".", "Millisecond"}}] 
-  AbsoluteTime[{"000:00:00.000", {"Hour", ":", "Minute", ":", "Second",
 ".", "Millisecond"}}]

This works both

Answer 1

Just as harper89 described, in Mathematica:

FromDigits[ToExpression /@ StringSplit[time, ":"], 60]