Question

How can I parse a time of format hh:mm:ss , inputted as a string to obtain only the integer values (ignoring the colons) in java?

Answer 1

As per Basil Bourque’s comment, this is the updated answer for this question, taking into account the new API of Java 8:

    String myDateString = "13:24:40";
    LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.parse(myDateString, DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("HH:mm:ss"));
    int hour = localTime.get(ChronoField.CLOCK_HOUR_OF_DAY);
    int minute = localTime.get(ChronoField.MINUTE_OF_HOUR);
    int second = localTime.get(ChronoField.SECOND_OF_MINUTE);

    //prints "hour: 13, minute: 24, second: 40":
    System.out.println(String.format("hour: %d, minute: %d, second: %d", hour, minute, second));

Remarks:

• since the OP’s question contains a concrete example of a time instant containing only hours, minutes and seconds (no day, month, etc.), the answer above only uses LocalTime. If wanting to parse a string that also contains days, month, etc. then LocalDateTime would be required. Its usage is pretty much analogous to that of LocalTime.
• since the time instant int OP’s question doesn’t contain any information about timezone, the answer uses the LocalXXX version of the date/time classes (LocalTime, LocalDateTime). If the time string that needs to be parsed also contains timezone information, then ZonedDateTime needs to be used.

====== Below is the old (original) answer for this question, using pre-Java8 API: =====

I’m sorry if I’m gonna upset anyone with this, but I’m actually gonna answer the question. The Java API’s are pretty huge, I think it’s normal that someone might miss one now and then.

A SimpleDateFormat might do the trick here:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/text/SimpleDateFormat.html

It should be something like:

String myDateString = "13:24:40";
//SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm:ss");
//the above commented line was changed to the one below, as per Grodriguez's pertinent comment:
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
Date date = sdf.parse(myDateString);

Calendar calendar = GregorianCalendar.getInstance(); // creates a new calendar instance
calendar.setTime(date);   // assigns calendar to given date 
int hour = calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR);
int minute; /... similar methods for minutes and seconds

The gotchas you should be aware of:

• the pattern you pass to SimpleDateFormat might be different then the one in my example depending on what values you have (are the hours in 12 hours format or in 24 hours format, etc). Look at the documentation in the link for details on this

• Once you create a Date object out of your String (via SimpleDateFormat), don’t be tempted to use Date.getHour(), Date.getMinute() etc. They might appear to work at times, but overall they can give bad results, and as such are now deprecated. Use the calendar instead as in the example above.