Question

public static void stringToDate(String time, String time2) {
   try { 
       DateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss");
       Date t1 = formatter.parse(time);  
       System.out.println("Users first date: " + t1);
    } catch (ParseException e){
        System.out.println("Exception :" + e);  
    }  
}

So above, I pass in 2 string parameters which are in the format of something like ’17:23:56′ and want them both converted into proper time objects that i can then find the difference between the 2, possibly in miliseconds or whatevers available if anyone knows how that’d be great.

Problem i’m having so far is that the output is: “Users first date: Thu Jan 01 17:23:56 GMT 1970”, even though I thought I specified it to only parse it in HH:mm:ss. Anyone got the solution, thanks.

Answer 1

You’re printing the result of Date#toString() ( <– click the link!) which is indeed in the given format. If you want to present it in HH:mm:ss you have to use the format() method on the obtained Date.

System.out.println(formatter.format(t1));

Don’t worry about this. Just parse the other time string to Date as well, do a getTime() on both and finally do the math.