Question

I want to calculate difference between 2 dates in hours/minutes/seconds.

I have a slight problem with my code here it is :

String dateStart = "11/03/14 09:29:58";
String dateStop = "11/03/14 09:33:43";

// Custom date format
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");  

Date d1 = null;
Date d2 = null;
try {
    d1 = format.parse(dateStart);
    d2 = format.parse(dateStop);
} catch (ParseException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}    

// Get msec from each, and subtract.
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000;         
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000);         
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);                      
System.out.println("Time in seconds: " + diffSeconds + " seconds.");         
System.out.println("Time in minutes: " + diffMinutes + " minutes.");         
System.out.println("Time in hours: " + diffHours + " hours."); 

This should produce :

Time in seconds: 45 seconds.
Time in minutes: 3 minutes.
Time in hours: 0 hours.

However I get this result :

Time in seconds: 225 seconds.
Time in minutes: 3 minutes.
Time in hours: 0 hours.

Can anyone see what I’m doing wrong here ?

Answer 1

try

long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;  
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60; 
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);

NOTE: this assumes that diff is non-negative.