Question

I’m trying to format a time using a variable input. If a user enter an hour as 1 – 9 the out put would include a “0”, and the same for minutes. So far if a user enters 1 hour 3 minutes the output reads 1:3 instead of 01:03.

How do I get the extra 0 in front of numbers less than 10.

Here’s the code…..

import java.util.Scanner;

public class FormatTime {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Scanner input = new Scanner(System.in);

        int MinutesInput;
        int HoursInput;
        int Hours;
        int Minutes;

        {
            System.out.println("Enter hours between 1 and 24");
            Hours = input.nextInt();
            System.out.println("Enter minutes between 1 and 59");
            Minutes = input.nextInt();

            {
                **//THIS NEXT LINE IS THE PROBLEM**
                HoursInput = Hours < 10 ? "0" + Hours : Hours;
                System.out.print(HoursInput + ":");
            }
            {
                **//THIS NEXT LINE IS THE PROBLEM**
                MinutesInput = (Minutes < 10) ? "0" + Minutes : (Minutes); 
                System.out.print(MinutesInput);
            }
            System.out.println();
        }

    }
}

Answer 1

You are confusing int and String types:

int HoursInput;
//...
HoursInput = Hours < 10 ? "0" + Hours : Hours;

There are two problems with your code: you are trying to store string "07" (or similar) in an int. Secondly even if it was possible, 07 is equivalent to 7 as far as integer types are concerned (well, leading 0 has a special octal meaning, but that’s not the point).

Try this instead:

String hoursInput;
//...
hoursInput = Hours < 10 ? "0" + Hours : "" + Hours;