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Get difference in minutes between two dates java [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to convert Milliseconds to "X mins, x seconds" in Java?
(29 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
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 ?

I would prefer to use suggested java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit class.
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();//as given
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff);

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.

If you are able to use external libraries I would recommend you to use Joda-Time, noting that:
Joda-Time is the de facto standard date and time library for Java prior to Java SE 8. Users are now asked to migrate to java.time (JSR-310).
Example for between calculation:
Seconds.between(startDate, endDate);
Days.between(startDate, endDate);

Try this for a friendly representation of time differences (in milliseconds):
String friendlyTimeDiff(long timeDifferenceMilliseconds) {
long diffSeconds = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / 1000;
long diffMinutes = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 1000);
long diffHours = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000);
long diffDays = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24);
long diffWeeks = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 7);
long diffMonths = (long) (timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 30.41666666));
long diffYears = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / ((long)60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 365);
if (diffSeconds < 1) {
return "less than a second";
} else if (diffMinutes < 1) {
return diffSeconds + " seconds";
} else if (diffHours < 1) {
return diffMinutes + " minutes";
} else if (diffDays < 1) {
return diffHours + " hours";
} else if (diffWeeks < 1) {
return diffDays + " days";
} else if (diffMonths < 1) {
return diffWeeks + " weeks";
} else if (diffYears < 1) {
return diffMonths + " months";
} else {
return diffYears + " years";
}
}

Since Java 5, you can use java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit to avoid the use of Magic Numbers like 1000 and 60 in your code.
By the way, you should take care to leap seconds in your computation: the last minute of a year may have an additional leap second so it indeed lasts 61 seconds instead of expected 60 seconds. The ISO specification even plan for possibly 61 seconds. You can find detail in java.util.Date javadoc.

Here is a suggestion, using TimeUnit, to obtain each time part and format them.
private static String formatDuration(long duration) {
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration) % 60;
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration) % 60;
long milliseconds = duration % 1000;
return String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d,%03d", hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);
}
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss,SSS");
Date startTime = sdf.parse("01:00:22,427");
Date now = sdf.parse("02:06:38,355");
long duration = now.getTime() - startTime.getTime();
System.out.println(formatDuration(duration));
The result is: 01:06:15,928

This is more of a maths problem than a java problem basically.
The result you receive is correct. This because 225 seconds is 3 minutes (when doing an integral division). What you want is the this:
divide by 1000 to get the number of seconds -> rest is milliseconds
divide that by 60 to get number of minutes -> rest are seconds
divide that by 60 to get number of hours -> rest are minutes
or in java:
int millis = diff % 1000;
diff/=1000;
int seconds = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
int minutes = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
hours = diff;

I know this is an old question, but I ended up doing something slightly different from the accepted answer. People talk about the TimeUnit class, but there were no answers using this in the way OP wanted it.
So here's another solution, should someone come by missing it ;-)
public class DateTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
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 days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(diff);
long remainingHoursInMillis = diff - TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(remainingHoursInMillis);
long remainingMinutesInMillis = remainingHoursInMillis - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(remainingMinutesInMillis);
long remainingSecondsInMillis = remainingMinutesInMillis - TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(minutes);
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(remainingSecondsInMillis);
System.out.println("Days: " + days + ", hours: " + hours + ", minutes: " + minutes + ", seconds: " + seconds);
}
}
Although just calculating the difference yourself can be done, it's not very meaningful to do it like that and I think TimeUnit is a highly overlooked class.

Create a Date object using the diffence between your times as a constructor,
then use Calendar methods to get values ..
Date diff = new Date(d2.getTime() - d1.getTime());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(diff);
int hours = calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int minutes = calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int seconds = calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND);

difference-between-two-dates-in-java
Extracted the code from the link
public class TimeDiff {
/**
* (For testing purposes)
*
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
Date d1 = new Date();
try { Thread.sleep(750); } catch(InterruptedException e) { /* ignore */ }
Date d0 = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis() - (1000*60*60*24*3)); // About 3 days ago
long[] diff = TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d0, d1);
System.out.printf("Time difference is %d day(s), %d hour(s), %d minute(s), %d second(s) and %d millisecond(s)\n",
diff[0], diff[1], diff[2], diff[3], diff[4]);
System.out.printf("Just the number of days = %d\n",
TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d0, d1, TimeDiff.TimeField.DAY));
}
/**
* Calculate the absolute difference between two Date without
* regard for time offsets
*
* #param d1 Date one
* #param d2 Date two
* #param field The field we're interested in out of
* day, hour, minute, second, millisecond
*
* #return The value of the required field
*/
public static long getTimeDifference(Date d1, Date d2, TimeField field) {
return TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d1, d2)[field.ordinal()];
}
/**
* Calculate the absolute difference between two Date without
* regard for time offsets
*
* #param d1 Date one
* #param d2 Date two
* #return The fields day, hour, minute, second and millisecond
*/
public static long[] getTimeDifference(Date d1, Date d2) {
long[] result = new long[5];
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
cal.setTime(d1);
long t1 = cal.getTimeInMillis();
cal.setTime(d2);
long diff = Math.abs(cal.getTimeInMillis() - t1);
final int ONE_DAY = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
final int ONE_HOUR = ONE_DAY / 24;
final int ONE_MINUTE = ONE_HOUR / 60;
final int ONE_SECOND = ONE_MINUTE / 60;
long d = diff / ONE_DAY;
diff %= ONE_DAY;
long h = diff / ONE_HOUR;
diff %= ONE_HOUR;
long m = diff / ONE_MINUTE;
diff %= ONE_MINUTE;
long s = diff / ONE_SECOND;
long ms = diff % ONE_SECOND;
result[0] = d;
result[1] = h;
result[2] = m;
result[3] = s;
result[4] = ms;
return result;
}
public static void printDiffs(long[] diffs) {
System.out.printf("Days: %3d\n", diffs[0]);
System.out.printf("Hours: %3d\n", diffs[1]);
System.out.printf("Minutes: %3d\n", diffs[2]);
System.out.printf("Seconds: %3d\n", diffs[3]);
System.out.printf("Milliseconds: %3d\n", diffs[4]);
}
public static enum TimeField {DAY,
HOUR,
MINUTE,
SECOND,
MILLISECOND;
}
}

// d1, d2 are dates
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000) % 24;
long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
System.out.print(diffDays + " days, ");
System.out.print(diffHours + " hours, ");
System.out.print(diffMinutes + " minutes, ");
System.out.print(diffSeconds + " seconds.");

Joda-Time
Joda-Time 2.3 library offers already-debugged code for this chore.
Joad-Time includes three classes to represent a span of time: Period, Interval, and Duration. Period tracks a span as a number of months, days, hours, etc. (not tied to the timeline).
// © 2013 Basil Bourque. This source code may be used freely forever by anyone taking full responsibility for doing so.
// Specify a time zone rather than rely on default.
// Necessary to handle Daylight Saving Time (DST) and other anomalies.
DateTimeZone timeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Montreal" );
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss" ).withZone( timeZone );
DateTime dateTimeStart = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:29:58" );
DateTime dateTimeStop = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:33:43" );
Period period = new Period( dateTimeStart, dateTimeStop );
PeriodFormatter periodFormatter = PeriodFormat.getDefault();
String output = periodFormatter.print( period );
System.out.println( "output: " + output );
When run…
output: 3 minutes and 45 seconds

Here is my code.
import java.util.Date;
// to calculate difference between two days
public class DateDifference {
// to calculate difference between two dates in milliseconds
public long getDateDiffInMsec(Date da, Date db) {
long diffMSec = 0;
diffMSec = db.getTime() - da.getTime();
return diffMSec;
}
// to convert Milliseconds into DD HH:MM:SS format.
public String getDateFromMsec(long diffMSec) {
int left = 0;
int ss = 0;
int mm = 0;
int hh = 0;
int dd = 0;
left = (int) (diffMSec / 1000);
ss = left % 60;
left = (int) left / 60;
if (left > 0) {
mm = left % 60;
left = (int) left / 60;
if (left > 0) {
hh = left % 24;
left = (int) left / 24;
if (left > 0) {
dd = left;
}
}
}
String diff = Integer.toString(dd) + " " + Integer.toString(hh) + ":"
+ Integer.toString(mm) + ":" + Integer.toString(ss);
return diff;
}
}

long diffSeconds = (diff / 1000)%60;
try this and let me know if it works correctly...

Well, I'll try yet another code sample:
/**
* Calculates the number of FULL days between to dates
* #param startDate must be before endDate
* #param endDate must be after startDate
* #return number of day between startDate and endDate
*/
public static int daysBetween(Calendar startDate, Calendar endDate) {
long start = startDate.getTimeInMillis();
long end = endDate.getTimeInMillis();
// It's only approximation due to several bugs (#see java.util.Date) and different precision in Calendar chosen
// by user (ex. day is time-quantum).
int presumedDays = (int) TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(end - start);
startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, presumedDays);
// if we still didn't reach endDate try it with the step of one day
if (startDate.before(endDate)) {
startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
++presumedDays;
}
// if we crossed endDate then we must go back, because the boundary day haven't completed yet
if (startDate.after(endDate)) {
--presumedDays;
}
return presumedDays;
}

Date startTime = new Date();
//...
//... lengthy jobs
//...
Date endTime = new Date();
long diff = endTime.getTime() - startTime.getTime();
String hrDateText = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(diff, "d 'day(s)' H 'hour(s)' m 'minute(s)' s 'second(s)' ");
System.out.println("Duration : " + hrDateText);
You can use Apache Commons Duration Format Utils. It formats like SimpleDateFormatter
Output:
0 days(s) 0 hour(s) 0 minute(s) 1 second(s)

As said before - think this is a good answer
/**
* #param d2 the later date
* #param d1 the earlier date
* #param timeUnit - Example Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY
* #return
*/
public static int getTimeDifference(Date d2,Date d1, int timeUnit) {
Date diff = new Date(d2.getTime() - d1.getTime());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(diff);
int hours = calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int minutes = calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int seconds = calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND);
if(timeUnit==Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY)
return hours;
if(timeUnit==Calendar.MINUTE)
return minutes;
return seconds;
}

How to convert from Java String to Date of format hh:mm:ss?

From one of my web service method call returns Strings which are float values:
Ex: 375.677, 61.47 etc.
These values are nothing but minutes 931 and 500 seconds.
But I have to convert this String to Date format of HH:MM:SS which means like this: Ex: 06:20:04.
I have looked into stack exchange questions and tried a solution below. But that is returning the invalid values. Here is the code I tried:
float f = Float.parseFloat("375.677");
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.set(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, 0);
calendar.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, (int) f);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, (int) ((f * 60) % 60));
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, (int) ((f * 3600) % 3600));
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm:ss");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(calendar.getTime()));
Please let me know how to resolve this.
Thanks in advance,
Saku

Only JDK 1.5 is necessary.
String input = "375.677";
int mins = 0;
int secs = 0;
StringTokenizer st = new StringTokenizer(input, ".");
if (st.hasMoreTokens()) mins = Integer.parseInt(st.nextToken());
if (st.hasMoreTokens()) secs = Integer.parseInt(st.nextToken());
if (st.hasMoreTokens()) throw new IllegalStateException("Second dot not allowed!");
int seconds = mins*60+secs;
int ss = seconds % 60;
seconds = seconds / 60;
int mm = seconds % 60;
seconds = seconds / 60;
int hh = seconds;
System.out.println(String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d", hh, mm, ss));

I'm guessing you mean minutes before the point, and seconds after it, where the minutes go up to 931 and seconds go up to 500. If so, try
float f = Float.parseFloat("375.677");
int m = ((int) f);
int s = ((int) (f * 1000)) % 1000;
// handle second overflow
m += s / 60;
s %= 60;
// handle minute overflow
int h = m / 60;
m %= 60;
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, h);
calendar.set(Calendar.MINUTE, m);
calendar.set(Calendar.SECOND, s);
SimpleDateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("hh:mm:ss");
System.out.println(dateFormat.format(calendar.getTime()));

Convert everything to seconds:
String timeString = "234.34";
String[] timeValuesAfterSplit = timeString.split("\\.");
int minutesToSeconds = Integer.parseInt(timeValuesAfterSplit[0]) * 60;
int totalSeconds = minutesToSeconds + Integer.parseInt(timeValuesAfterSplit[1]);
Now get the time in the given format using LocalTime as:
LocalTime localTime = LocalTime.ofSecondOfDay(totalSeconds);
And then the format that you need could be obtained by calling toString() on localTime.

How to get time difference in java

I need to get time difference in my program.
ex: if user inserts earlier time as 08:30 and later time as 5:00 I need to calculate the time gap as 8 hours and 30 minutes(I want it to display as 08 hours 30 min)
I'm using phpmyadmin and my db has employee table,and in it there are three columns as earlierTime,laterTime and noOfHoursWorked and all these columns' data types are varchar(50) so i did this but output is not correct
public String timeDifference(String earlierTime, String laterTime) {
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm");
Date date1 = format.parse(startTime);
Date date2 = format.parse(leavedTime);
long difference = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
String d = String.valueOf(difference);
return d;
}
can anyone please tell me what is wrong here I'm struggling with this problem for hours now
Is it okay if i change earlierTime, laterTime as date and noOfHoursWorked as int then i know in my output i can't get "8 hours 30 minutes" as output,so that I'd like to see it as "08:30"

java.time
In Java 8 and later use the java.time package. (Tutorial)
// Some exemplary dates
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.set(2015, 9, 9, 10, 15, 0);
Date date1 = cal.getTime();
cal.set(2015, 9, 9, 14, 0, 20);
Date date2 = cal.getTime();
Duration duration = Duration.between(date1.toInstant(), date2.toInstant());
System.out.println(duration.toMinutes());
long minutes = duration.toMinutes()%60;
long hours = duration.toMinutes() / 60;
System.out.println("Duration " + hours + ":" + minutes);
long minutes = duration.toMinutes()%60;
long hours = duration.toMinutes() / 60; // this takes the math floor be default
System.out.println("Duration " + hours + ":" + minutes);
Joda-Time
In older Java, if only you can easily add external libraries, use Joda-Time. It's the best solution, since many peoples' workarounds do not take leap years into account while calculating date differences.

take a look at this :
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
public class DateDifferentExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String dateStart = "01/14/2012 09:29:58";
String dateStop = "01/15/2012 10:31:48";
//HH converts hour in 24 hours format (0-23), day calculation
SimpleDateFormat format = new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss");
Date d1 = null;
Date d2 = null;
try {
d1 = format.parse(dateStart);
d2 = format.parse(dateStop);
//in milliseconds
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000) % 24;
long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
System.out.print(diffDays + " days, ");
System.out.print(diffHours + " hours, ");
System.out.print(diffMinutes + " minutes, ");
System.out.print(diffSeconds + " seconds.");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

How to find the duration of difference between two dates in java?

I have two objects of DateTime, which need to find the duration of their difference,
I have the following code but not sure how to continue it to get to the expected results as following:
Example:
11/03/14 09:30:58
11/03/14 09:33:43
elapsed time is 02 minutes and 45 seconds
-----------------------------------------------------
11/03/14 09:30:58
11/03/15 09:30:58
elapsed time is a day
-----------------------------------------------------
11/03/14 09:30:58
11/03/16 09:30:58
elapsed time is two days
-----------------------------------------------------
11/03/14 09:30:58
11/03/16 09:35:58
elapsed time is two days and 05 minutes
Code:
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 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
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.");

The date difference conversion could be handled in a better way using Java built-in class, TimeUnit. It provides utility methods to do that:
Date startDate = // Set start date
Date endDate = // Set end date
long duration = endDate.getTime() - startDate.getTime();
long diffInSeconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration);
long diffInMinutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration);
long diffInHours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
long diffInDays = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(duration);

try the following
{
Date dt2 = new DateAndTime().getCurrentDateTime();
long diff = dt2.getTime() - dt1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
int diffInDays = (int) ((dt2.getTime() - dt1.getTime()) / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24));
if (diffInDays > 1) {
System.err.println("Difference in number of days (2) : " + diffInDays);
return false;
} else if (diffHours > 24) {
System.err.println(">24");
return false;
} else if ((diffHours == 24) && (diffMinutes >= 1)) {
System.err.println("minutes");
return false;
}
return true;
}

Use Joda-Time library
DateTime startTime, endTime;
Period p = new Period(startTime, endTime);
long hours = p.getHours();
long minutes = p.getMinutes();
Joda Time has a concept of time Interval:
Interval interval = new Interval(oldTime, new Instant());
One more example
Date Difference
One more Link
or with Java-8 (which integrated Joda-Time concepts)
Instant start, end;//
Duration dur = Duration.between(start, stop);
long hours = dur.toHours();
long minutes = dur.toMinutes();

Here is how the problem can solved in Java 8 just like the answer by shamimz.
Source : http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/datetime/iso/period.html
LocalDate today = LocalDate.now();
LocalDate birthday = LocalDate.of(1960, Month.JANUARY, 1);
Period p = Period.between(birthday, today);
long p2 = ChronoUnit.DAYS.between(birthday, today);
System.out.println("You are " + p.getYears() + " years, " + p.getMonths() + " months, and " + p.getDays() + " days old. (" + p2 + " days total)");
The code produces output similar to the following:
You are 53 years, 4 months, and 29 days old. (19508 days total)
We have to use LocalDateTime http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/time/LocalDateTime.html to get hour,minute,second differences.

You can create a method like
public long getDaysBetweenDates(Date d1, Date d2){
return TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(d1.getTime() - d2.getTime());
}
This method will return the number of days between the 2 days.

Date d2 = new Date();
Date d1 = new Date(1384831803875l);
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000);
int diffInDays = (int) diff / (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24);
System.out.println(diffInDays+" days");
System.out.println(diffHours+" Hour");
System.out.println(diffMinutes+" min");
System.out.println(diffSeconds+" sec");

As Michael Borgwardt writes in his answer here:
int diffInDays = (int)( (newerDate.getTime() - olderDate.getTime())
/ (1000 * 60 * 60 * 24) )
Note that this works with UTC dates, so the difference may be a day
off if you look at local dates. And getting it to work correctly with
local dates requires a completely different approach due to daylight
savings time.

It worked for me can try with this, hope it will be helpful . Let me know if any concern .
Date startDate = java.util.Calendar.getInstance().getTime(); //set your start time
Date endDate = java.util.Calendar.getInstance().getTime(); // set your end time
long duration = endDate.getTime() - startDate.getTime();
long diffInSeconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration);
long diffInMinutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration);
long diffInHours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
long diffInDays = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(duration);
Toast.makeText(MainActivity.this, "Diff"
+ duration + diffInDays + diffInHours + diffInMinutes + diffInSeconds, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); **// Toast message for android .**
System.out.println("Diff" + duration + diffInDays + diffInHours + diffInMinutes + diffInSeconds); **// Print console message for Java .**

In Java 8, you can make of DateTimeFormatter, Duration, and LocalDateTime. Here is an example:
final String dateStart = "11/03/14 09:29:58";
final String dateStop = "11/03/14 09:33:43";
final DateTimeFormatter formatter = new DateTimeFormatterBuilder()
.appendValue(ChronoField.MONTH_OF_YEAR, 2)
.appendLiteral('/')
.appendValue(ChronoField.DAY_OF_MONTH, 2)
.appendLiteral('/')
.appendValueReduced(ChronoField.YEAR, 2, 2, 2000)
.appendLiteral(' ')
.appendValue(ChronoField.HOUR_OF_DAY, 2)
.appendLiteral(':')
.appendValue(ChronoField.MINUTE_OF_HOUR, 2)
.appendLiteral(':')
.appendValue(ChronoField.SECOND_OF_MINUTE, 2)
.toFormatter();
final LocalDateTime start = LocalDateTime.parse(dateStart, formatter);
final LocalDateTime stop = LocalDateTime.parse(dateStop, formatter);
final Duration between = Duration.between(start, stop);
System.out.println(start);
System.out.println(stop);
System.out.println(formatter.format(start));
System.out.println(formatter.format(stop));
System.out.println(between);
System.out.println(between.get(ChronoUnit.SECONDS));

This is the code:
String date1 = "07/15/2013";
String time1 = "11:00:01";
String date2 = "07/16/2013";
String time2 = "22:15:10";
String format = "MM/dd/yyyy HH:mm:ss";
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat(format);
Date fromDate = sdf.parse(date1 + " " + time1);
Date toDate = sdf.parse(date2 + " " + time2);
long diff = toDate.getTime() - fromDate.getTime();
String dateFormat="duration: ";
int diffDays = (int) (diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000));
if(diffDays>0){
dateFormat+=diffDays+" day ";
}
diff -= diffDays * (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
int diffhours = (int) (diff / (60 * 60 * 1000));
if(diffhours>0){
dateFormat+=diffhours+" hour ";
}
diff -= diffhours * (60 * 60 * 1000);
int diffmin = (int) (diff / (60 * 1000));
if(diffmin>0){
dateFormat+=diffmin+" min ";
}
diff -= diffmin * (60 * 1000);
int diffsec = (int) (diff / (1000));
if(diffsec>0){
dateFormat+=diffsec+" sec";
}
System.out.println(dateFormat);
and the out is:
duration: 1 day 11 hour 15 min 9 sec

I solved the similar problem using a simple method recently.
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, ParseException {
TimeZone utc = TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC");
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(utc);
Date until = calendar.getTime();
calendar.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, -7);
Date since = calendar.getTime();
long durationInSeconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(until.getTime() - since.getTime());
long SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE = 60;
long MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR = 60;
long HOURS_IN_A_DAY = 24;
long DAYS_IN_A_MONTH = 30;
long MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR = 12;
long sec = (durationInSeconds >= SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE) ? durationInSeconds % SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE : durationInSeconds;
long min = (durationInSeconds /= SECONDS_IN_A_MINUTE) >= MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR ? durationInSeconds%MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR : durationInSeconds;
long hrs = (durationInSeconds /= MINUTES_IN_AN_HOUR) >= HOURS_IN_A_DAY ? durationInSeconds % HOURS_IN_A_DAY : durationInSeconds;
long days = (durationInSeconds /= HOURS_IN_A_DAY) >= DAYS_IN_A_MONTH ? durationInSeconds % DAYS_IN_A_MONTH : durationInSeconds;
long months = (durationInSeconds /=DAYS_IN_A_MONTH) >= MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR ? durationInSeconds % MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR : durationInSeconds;
long years = (durationInSeconds /= MONTHS_IN_A_YEAR);
String duration = getDuration(sec,min,hrs,days,months,years);
System.out.println(duration);
}
private static String getDuration(long secs, long mins, long hrs, long days, long months, long years) {
StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
String EMPTY_STRING = "";
sb.append(years > 0 ? years + (years > 1 ? " years " : " year "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append(months > 0 ? months + (months > 1 ? " months " : " month "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append(days > 0 ? days + (days > 1 ? " days " : " day "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append(hrs > 0 ? hrs + (hrs > 1 ? " hours " : " hour "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append(mins > 0 ? mins + (mins > 1 ? " mins " : " min "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append(secs > 0 ? secs + (secs > 1 ? " secs " : " secs "): EMPTY_STRING);
sb.append("ago");
return sb.toString();
}
And as expected it prints: 7 days ago.

with reference to shamim's answer update here is a method that does the task without using any third party library. Just copy the method and use
public static String getDurationTimeStamp(String date) {
String timeDifference = "";
//date formatter as per the coder need
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
//parse the string date-ti
// me to Date object
Date startDate = null;
try {
startDate = sdf.parse(date);
} catch (ParseException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
//end date will be the current system time to calculate the lapse time difference
//if needed, coder can add end date to whatever date
Date endDate = new Date();
System.out.println(startDate);
System.out.println(endDate);
//get the time difference in milliseconds
long duration = endDate.getTime() - startDate.getTime();
//now we calculate the differences in different time units
//this long value will be the total time difference in each unit
//i.e; total difference in seconds, total difference in minutes etc...
long diffInSeconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration);
long diffInMinutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration);
long diffInHours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
long diffInDays = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(duration);
//now we create the time stamps depending on the value of each unit that we get
//as we do not have the unit in years,
//we will see if the days difference is more that 365 days, as 365 days = 1 year
if (diffInDays > 365) {
//we get the year in integer not in float
//ex- 791/365 = 2.167 in float but it will be 2 years in int
int year = (int) (diffInDays / 365);
timeDifference = year + " years ago";
System.out.println(year + " years ago");
}
//if days are not enough to create year then get the days
else if (diffInDays > 1) {
timeDifference = diffInDays + " days ago";
System.out.println(diffInDays + " days ago");
}
//if days value<1 then get the hours
else if (diffInHours > 1) {
timeDifference = diffInHours + " hours ago";
System.out.println(diffInHours + " hours ago");
}
//if hours value<1 then get the minutes
else if (diffInMinutes > 1) {
timeDifference = diffInMinutes + " minutes ago";
System.out.println(diffInMinutes + " minutes ago");
}
//if minutes value<1 then get the seconds
else if (diffInSeconds > 1) {
timeDifference = diffInSeconds + " seconds ago";
System.out.println(diffInSeconds + " seconds ago");
}
return timeDifference;
// that's all. Happy Coding :)
}

java.time.Duration
I still didn’t feel any of the answers was quite up to date and to the point. So here is the modern answer using Duration from java.time, the modern Java date and time API (the answers by MayurB and mkobit mention the same class, but none of them correctly converts to days, hours, minutes and minutes as asked).
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
String dateStart = "11/03/14 09:29:58";
String dateStop = "11/03/14 09:33:43";
ZoneId zone = ZoneId.systemDefault();
ZonedDateTime startDateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateStart, formatter).atZone(zone);
ZonedDateTime endDateTime = LocalDateTime.parse(dateStop, formatter).atZone(zone);
Duration diff = Duration.between(startDateTime, endDateTime);
if (diff.isZero()) {
System.out.println("0 minutes");
} else {
long days = diff.toDays();
if (days != 0) {
System.out.print("" + days + " days ");
diff = diff.minusDays(days);
}
long hours = diff.toHours();
if (hours != 0) {
System.out.print("" + hours + " hours ");
diff = diff.minusHours(hours);
}
long minutes = diff.toMinutes();
if (minutes != 0) {
System.out.print("" + minutes + " minutes ");
diff = diff.minusMinutes(minutes);
}
long seconds = diff.getSeconds();
if (seconds != 0) {
System.out.print("" + seconds + " seconds ");
}
System.out.println();
}
Output from this example snippet is:
3 minutes 45 seconds
Note that Duration always counts a day as 24 hours. If you want to treat time anomalies like summer time transistions differently, solutions inlcude (1) use ChronoUnit.DAYS (2) Use Period (3) Use LocalDateTimeinstead ofZonedDateTime` (may be considered a hack).
The code above works with Java 8 and with ThreeTen Backport, that backport of java.time to Java 6 and 7. From Java 9 it may be possible to write it a bit more nicely using the methods toHoursPart, toMinutesPart and toSecondsPart added there.
I will elaborate the explanations further one of the days when I get time, maybe not until next week.

This is a program I wrote, which gets the number of days between 2 dates(no time here).
import java.util.Scanner;
public class HelloWorld {
public static void main(String args[]) {
Scanner s = new Scanner(System.in);
System.out.print("Enter starting date separated by dots: ");
String inp1 = s.nextLine();
System.out.print("Enter ending date separated by dots: ");
String inp2 = s.nextLine();
int[] nodim = {
0,
31,
28,
31,
30,
31,
30,
31,
31,
30,
31,
30,
31
};
String[] inpArr1 = split(inp1);
String[] inpArr2 = split(inp2);
int d1 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr1[0]);
int m1 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr1[1]);
int y1 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr1[2]);
int d2 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr2[0]);
int m2 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr2[1]);
int y2 = Integer.parseInt(inpArr2[2]);
if (y1 % 4 == 0) nodim[2] = 29;
int diff = m1 == m2 && y1 == y2 ? d2 - (d1 - 1) : (nodim[m1] - (d1 - 1));
int mm1 = m1 + 1, mm2 = m2 - 1, yy1 = y1, yy2 = y2;
for (; yy1 <= yy2; yy1++, mm1 = 1) {
mm2 = yy1 == yy2 ? (m2 - 1) : 12;
if (yy1 % 4 == 0) nodim[2] = 29;
else nodim[2] = 28;
if (mm2 == 0) {
mm2 = 12;
yy2 = yy2 - 1;
}
for (; mm1 <= mm2 && yy1 <= yy2; mm1++) diff = diff + nodim[mm1];
}
System.out.print("No. of days from " + inp1 + " to " + inp2 + " is " + diff);
}
public static String[] split(String s) {
String[] retval = {
"",
"",
""
};
s = s + ".";
s = s + " ";
for (int i = 0; i <= 2; i++) {
retval[i] = s.substring(0, s.indexOf("."));
s = s.substring((s.indexOf(".") + 1), s.length());
}
return retval;
}
}
http://pastebin.com/HRsjTtUf

You can get the difference between two DateTime using this
DateTime startDate = DateTime.now();
DateTime endDate = DateTime.now();
Days daysBetween = Days.daysBetween(startDate, endDate);
System.out.println(daysBetween.toStandardSeconds());

The below code will give the difference between two DateTime (Will work in Java 8 and above)
private long countDaysBetween(LocalDateTime startDate, LocalDateTime enddate)
{
if(startDate == null || enddate == null)
{
throw new IllegalArgumentException("No such a date");
}
long daysBetween = ChronoUnit.DAYS.between(startDate, enddate);
return daysBetween;
}

If anyone wants a string with all of them together, this function can be used.
String getTimeDifference(long duration) {
StringBuilder timeRemaining = new StringBuilder();
long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(duration);
if (days >= 1) {
timeRemaining.append(days).append((days == 1) ? " day " : " days ");
}
duration -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
if (hours >= 1) {
timeRemaining.append(hours).append((hours == 1) ? " hour " : " hours ");
}
duration -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration);
if (minutes >= 1) {
timeRemaining.append(minutes).append((hours == 1) ? " minute " : " minutes ");
}
return timeRemaining.toString().trim();
}

// calculating the difference b/w startDate and endDate
String startDate = "01-01-2016";
String endDate = simpleDateFormat.format(currentDate);
date1 = simpleDateFormat.parse(startDate);
date2 = simpleDateFormat.parse(endDate);
long getDiff = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
// using TimeUnit class from java.util.concurrent package
long getDaysDiff = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(getDiff);
How to calculate difference between two dates in Java

Calculate date/time difference in java [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
How to convert Milliseconds to "X mins, x seconds" in Java?
(29 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
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 ?

I would prefer to use suggested java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit class.
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();//as given
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff);

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.

If you are able to use external libraries I would recommend you to use Joda-Time, noting that:
Joda-Time is the de facto standard date and time library for Java prior to Java SE 8. Users are now asked to migrate to java.time (JSR-310).
Example for between calculation:
Seconds.between(startDate, endDate);
Days.between(startDate, endDate);

Try this for a friendly representation of time differences (in milliseconds):
String friendlyTimeDiff(long timeDifferenceMilliseconds) {
long diffSeconds = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / 1000;
long diffMinutes = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 1000);
long diffHours = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000);
long diffDays = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24);
long diffWeeks = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 7);
long diffMonths = (long) (timeDifferenceMilliseconds / (60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 30.41666666));
long diffYears = timeDifferenceMilliseconds / ((long)60 * 60 * 1000 * 24 * 365);
if (diffSeconds < 1) {
return "less than a second";
} else if (diffMinutes < 1) {
return diffSeconds + " seconds";
} else if (diffHours < 1) {
return diffMinutes + " minutes";
} else if (diffDays < 1) {
return diffHours + " hours";
} else if (diffWeeks < 1) {
return diffDays + " days";
} else if (diffMonths < 1) {
return diffWeeks + " weeks";
} else if (diffYears < 1) {
return diffMonths + " months";
} else {
return diffYears + " years";
}
}

Since Java 5, you can use java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit to avoid the use of Magic Numbers like 1000 and 60 in your code.
By the way, you should take care to leap seconds in your computation: the last minute of a year may have an additional leap second so it indeed lasts 61 seconds instead of expected 60 seconds. The ISO specification even plan for possibly 61 seconds. You can find detail in java.util.Date javadoc.

Here is a suggestion, using TimeUnit, to obtain each time part and format them.
private static String formatDuration(long duration) {
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration) % 60;
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration) % 60;
long milliseconds = duration % 1000;
return String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d,%03d", hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);
}
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("HH:mm:ss,SSS");
Date startTime = sdf.parse("01:00:22,427");
Date now = sdf.parse("02:06:38,355");
long duration = now.getTime() - startTime.getTime();
System.out.println(formatDuration(duration));
The result is: 01:06:15,928

This is more of a maths problem than a java problem basically.
The result you receive is correct. This because 225 seconds is 3 minutes (when doing an integral division). What you want is the this:
divide by 1000 to get the number of seconds -> rest is milliseconds
divide that by 60 to get number of minutes -> rest are seconds
divide that by 60 to get number of hours -> rest are minutes
or in java:
int millis = diff % 1000;
diff/=1000;
int seconds = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
int minutes = diff % 60;
diff/=60;
hours = diff;

I know this is an old question, but I ended up doing something slightly different from the accepted answer. People talk about the TimeUnit class, but there were no answers using this in the way OP wanted it.
So here's another solution, should someone come by missing it ;-)
public class DateTesting {
public static void main(String[] args) {
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 days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(diff);
long remainingHoursInMillis = diff - TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(remainingHoursInMillis);
long remainingMinutesInMillis = remainingHoursInMillis - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(remainingMinutesInMillis);
long remainingSecondsInMillis = remainingMinutesInMillis - TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(minutes);
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(remainingSecondsInMillis);
System.out.println("Days: " + days + ", hours: " + hours + ", minutes: " + minutes + ", seconds: " + seconds);
}
}
Although just calculating the difference yourself can be done, it's not very meaningful to do it like that and I think TimeUnit is a highly overlooked class.

Create a Date object using the diffence between your times as a constructor,
then use Calendar methods to get values ..
Date diff = new Date(d2.getTime() - d1.getTime());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(diff);
int hours = calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int minutes = calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int seconds = calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND);

difference-between-two-dates-in-java
Extracted the code from the link
public class TimeDiff {
/**
* (For testing purposes)
*
*/
public static void main(String[] args) {
Date d1 = new Date();
try { Thread.sleep(750); } catch(InterruptedException e) { /* ignore */ }
Date d0 = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis() - (1000*60*60*24*3)); // About 3 days ago
long[] diff = TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d0, d1);
System.out.printf("Time difference is %d day(s), %d hour(s), %d minute(s), %d second(s) and %d millisecond(s)\n",
diff[0], diff[1], diff[2], diff[3], diff[4]);
System.out.printf("Just the number of days = %d\n",
TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d0, d1, TimeDiff.TimeField.DAY));
}
/**
* Calculate the absolute difference between two Date without
* regard for time offsets
*
* #param d1 Date one
* #param d2 Date two
* #param field The field we're interested in out of
* day, hour, minute, second, millisecond
*
* #return The value of the required field
*/
public static long getTimeDifference(Date d1, Date d2, TimeField field) {
return TimeDiff.getTimeDifference(d1, d2)[field.ordinal()];
}
/**
* Calculate the absolute difference between two Date without
* regard for time offsets
*
* #param d1 Date one
* #param d2 Date two
* #return The fields day, hour, minute, second and millisecond
*/
public static long[] getTimeDifference(Date d1, Date d2) {
long[] result = new long[5];
Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("UTC"));
cal.setTime(d1);
long t1 = cal.getTimeInMillis();
cal.setTime(d2);
long diff = Math.abs(cal.getTimeInMillis() - t1);
final int ONE_DAY = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24;
final int ONE_HOUR = ONE_DAY / 24;
final int ONE_MINUTE = ONE_HOUR / 60;
final int ONE_SECOND = ONE_MINUTE / 60;
long d = diff / ONE_DAY;
diff %= ONE_DAY;
long h = diff / ONE_HOUR;
diff %= ONE_HOUR;
long m = diff / ONE_MINUTE;
diff %= ONE_MINUTE;
long s = diff / ONE_SECOND;
long ms = diff % ONE_SECOND;
result[0] = d;
result[1] = h;
result[2] = m;
result[3] = s;
result[4] = ms;
return result;
}
public static void printDiffs(long[] diffs) {
System.out.printf("Days: %3d\n", diffs[0]);
System.out.printf("Hours: %3d\n", diffs[1]);
System.out.printf("Minutes: %3d\n", diffs[2]);
System.out.printf("Seconds: %3d\n", diffs[3]);
System.out.printf("Milliseconds: %3d\n", diffs[4]);
}
public static enum TimeField {DAY,
HOUR,
MINUTE,
SECOND,
MILLISECOND;
}
}

// d1, d2 are dates
long diff = d2.getTime() - d1.getTime();
long diffSeconds = diff / 1000 % 60;
long diffMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000) % 60;
long diffHours = diff / (60 * 60 * 1000) % 24;
long diffDays = diff / (24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
System.out.print(diffDays + " days, ");
System.out.print(diffHours + " hours, ");
System.out.print(diffMinutes + " minutes, ");
System.out.print(diffSeconds + " seconds.");

Joda-Time
Joda-Time 2.3 library offers already-debugged code for this chore.
Joad-Time includes three classes to represent a span of time: Period, Interval, and Duration. Period tracks a span as a number of months, days, hours, etc. (not tied to the timeline).
// © 2013 Basil Bourque. This source code may be used freely forever by anyone taking full responsibility for doing so.
// Specify a time zone rather than rely on default.
// Necessary to handle Daylight Saving Time (DST) and other anomalies.
DateTimeZone timeZone = DateTimeZone.forID( "America/Montreal" );
DateTimeFormatter formatter = DateTimeFormat.forPattern( "yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss" ).withZone( timeZone );
DateTime dateTimeStart = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:29:58" );
DateTime dateTimeStop = formatter.parseDateTime( "11/03/14 09:33:43" );
Period period = new Period( dateTimeStart, dateTimeStop );
PeriodFormatter periodFormatter = PeriodFormat.getDefault();
String output = periodFormatter.print( period );
System.out.println( "output: " + output );
When run…
output: 3 minutes and 45 seconds

Here is my code.
import java.util.Date;
// to calculate difference between two days
public class DateDifference {
// to calculate difference between two dates in milliseconds
public long getDateDiffInMsec(Date da, Date db) {
long diffMSec = 0;
diffMSec = db.getTime() - da.getTime();
return diffMSec;
}
// to convert Milliseconds into DD HH:MM:SS format.
public String getDateFromMsec(long diffMSec) {
int left = 0;
int ss = 0;
int mm = 0;
int hh = 0;
int dd = 0;
left = (int) (diffMSec / 1000);
ss = left % 60;
left = (int) left / 60;
if (left > 0) {
mm = left % 60;
left = (int) left / 60;
if (left > 0) {
hh = left % 24;
left = (int) left / 24;
if (left > 0) {
dd = left;
}
}
}
String diff = Integer.toString(dd) + " " + Integer.toString(hh) + ":"
+ Integer.toString(mm) + ":" + Integer.toString(ss);
return diff;
}
}

long diffSeconds = (diff / 1000)%60;
try this and let me know if it works correctly...

Well, I'll try yet another code sample:
/**
* Calculates the number of FULL days between to dates
* #param startDate must be before endDate
* #param endDate must be after startDate
* #return number of day between startDate and endDate
*/
public static int daysBetween(Calendar startDate, Calendar endDate) {
long start = startDate.getTimeInMillis();
long end = endDate.getTimeInMillis();
// It's only approximation due to several bugs (#see java.util.Date) and different precision in Calendar chosen
// by user (ex. day is time-quantum).
int presumedDays = (int) TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(end - start);
startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, presumedDays);
// if we still didn't reach endDate try it with the step of one day
if (startDate.before(endDate)) {
startDate.add(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH, 1);
++presumedDays;
}
// if we crossed endDate then we must go back, because the boundary day haven't completed yet
if (startDate.after(endDate)) {
--presumedDays;
}
return presumedDays;
}

Date startTime = new Date();
//...
//... lengthy jobs
//...
Date endTime = new Date();
long diff = endTime.getTime() - startTime.getTime();
String hrDateText = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(diff, "d 'day(s)' H 'hour(s)' m 'minute(s)' s 'second(s)' ");
System.out.println("Duration : " + hrDateText);
You can use Apache Commons Duration Format Utils. It formats like SimpleDateFormatter
Output:
0 days(s) 0 hour(s) 0 minute(s) 1 second(s)

As said before - think this is a good answer
/**
* #param d2 the later date
* #param d1 the earlier date
* #param timeUnit - Example Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY
* #return
*/
public static int getTimeDifference(Date d2,Date d1, int timeUnit) {
Date diff = new Date(d2.getTime() - d1.getTime());
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance();
calendar.setTime(diff);
int hours = calendar.get(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY);
int minutes = calendar.get(Calendar.MINUTE);
int seconds = calendar.get(Calendar.SECOND);
if(timeUnit==Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY)
return hours;
if(timeUnit==Calendar.MINUTE)
return minutes;
return seconds;
}