How can I calculate a time span in Java and format the output?

by

Since everyone shouts “YOODAA!!!” but noone posts a concrete example, here’s my contribution.

You could also do this with Joda-Time. Use Period to represent a period. To format the period in the desired human representation, use PeriodFormatter which you can build by PeriodFormatterBuilder.

Here’s a kickoff example:

DateTime myBirthDate = new DateTime(1978, 3, 26, 12, 35, 0, 0);
DateTime now = new DateTime();
Period period = new Period(myBirthDate, now);

PeriodFormatter formatter = new PeriodFormatterBuilder()
    .appendYears().appendSuffix(" year, ", " years, ")
    .appendMonths().appendSuffix(" month, ", " months, ")
    .appendWeeks().appendSuffix(" week, ", " weeks, ")
    .appendDays().appendSuffix(" day, ", " days, ")
    .appendHours().appendSuffix(" hour, ", " hours, ")
    .appendMinutes().appendSuffix(" minute, ", " minutes, ")
    .appendSeconds().appendSuffix(" second", " seconds")
    .printZeroNever()
    .toFormatter();

String elapsed = formatter.print(period);
System.out.println(elapsed + " ago");

Much more clear and concise, isn’t it?

This prints by now 

32 years, 1 month, 1 week, 5 days, 6 hours, 56 minutes, 24 seconds ago

(Cough, old, cough)

More Related Contents:

  1. Java string to date conversion
  2. Calculating the difference between two Java date instances
  3. Change date format in a Java string
  4. Convert java.util.Date to String
  5. What is this date format? 2011-08-12T20:17:46.384Z
  6. How to calculate “time ago” in Java?
  7. Should I use Java date and time classes or go with a 3rd party library like Joda Time?
  8. Creating java date object from year,month,day
  9. Best way to constrain user to enter a time in a JTextField
  10. System.currentTimeMillis() vs. new Date() vs. Calendar.getInstance().getTime()
  11. How to convert current date into string in java?
  12. Extract time from date String
  13. Calculating the difference between two Java date instances
  14. Java: getMinutes and getHours
  15. Java Date cut off time information
  16. How can I “pretty print” a Duration in Java?
  17. Convert java.time.Instant to java.sql.Timestamp without Zone offset
  18. Calculate Difference between two times in Android
  19. How to properly format the date?
  20. How can I set date and time formatting in Java that respects the user’s OS settings
  21. How to transform currentTimeMillis to a readable date format? [duplicate]
  22. Getting the current time millis from device and converting it into a new date with different timezone [duplicate]
  23. How do I get difference between two dates in android?, tried every thing and post
  24. Time: How to get the next friday?
  25. DateTimeParse Exception
  26. Getting Date in HTTP format in Java
  27. How can I increment a date by one day in Java?
  28. SimpleDateFormat and locale based format string
  29. java.util.Date format SSSSSS: if not microseconds what are the last 3 digits?
  30. How to get the first date and last date of the previous month? (Java)

Leave a Comment