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How to calculate the difference in minutes between two timeStamp ( with different days)?

I'm trying to calculate a difference in minutes between two java TimeStamps when I write:
Timestamp t1,t2;
t2.getTime()-t1.getTime();
it returns only the difference between the two times and
I need the difference the whole times (including days)

Try this
long difftime = t1.getTime() - t2.getTime();
long seconds = diff / 1000;
long minutes = seconds / 60;
long hours = minutes / 60;
long days = hours / 24;

Difference between 2 timestamps gives milliseconds. Apply Maths afterwards:
// get time difference in seconds
long milliseconds = timestamp2.getTime() - timestamp1.getTime();
int seconds = (int) milliseconds / 1000;
// calculate hours minutes and seconds
int hours = seconds / 3600;
int minutes = (seconds % 3600) / 60;
seconds = (seconds % 3600) % 60;

Assuming you mean java.sql.Timestamp, the code below seems to work just fine:
import java.sql.Timestamp;
class Scratch {
public static final long MINUTES_PER_HOUR = 60;
public static final long SECONDS_PER_MINUTE = 60;
public static final long HOURS_PER_DAY = 24;
public static final long MILLIS_PER_SECOND = 1000L;
public static void main(String[] args) {
long oneDayPlusFiveMinutesInMillis = (MILLIS_PER_SECOND * SECONDS_PER_MINUTE) * ( 5 + MINUTES_PER_HOUR * HOURS_PER_DAY);
Timestamp t0 = new Timestamp(System.currentTimeMillis());
Timestamp t1 = new Timestamp(t0.getTime() + oneDayPlusFiveMinutesInMillis);
long diff = (t1.getTime() - t0.getTime()) / (MILLIS_PER_SECOND * SECONDS_PER_MINUTE);
System.out.println("t1 - t0 = " + diff + " minutes");
}
}
Returns:
t1 - t0 = 1445 minutes

Timestamp t1 = new Timestamp(new Date("04/26/2019 20:32:49").getTime());
Timestamp t2 = new Timestamp(new Date("04/27/2019 19:32:49").getTime());
long diff = t2.getTime() - t1.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);
long diffTotMinutes = diff / (60 * 1000);
System.out.println("Days: " + diffDays + " \nTime: " + diffHours + ":" + diffMinutes + ":" + diffSeconds);
System.out.println("Total Minutes: " + diffTotMinutes);
Out Put:
Days: 0
Time: 23:0:0
Total Minutes: 1380

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 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

How to convert Milliseconds to "X mins, x seconds" in Java?

I want to record the time using System.currentTimeMillis() when a user begins something in my program. When he finishes, I will subtract the current System.currentTimeMillis() from the start variable, and I want to show them the time elapsed using a human readable format such as "XX hours, XX mins, XX seconds" or even "XX mins, XX seconds" because its not likely to take someone an hour.
What's the best way to do this?

Use the java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit class:
String.format("%d min, %d sec",
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) -
TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);
Note: TimeUnit is part of the Java 1.5 specification, but toMinutes was added as of Java 1.6.
To add a leading zero for values 0-9, just do:
String.format("%02d min, %02d sec",
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) -
TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);
If TimeUnit or toMinutes are unsupported (such as on Android before API version 9), use the following equations:
int seconds = (int) (milliseconds / 1000) % 60 ;
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60)) % 60);
int hours = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60*60)) % 24);
//etc...

Based on #siddhadev's answer, I wrote a function which converts milliseconds to a formatted string:
/**
* Convert a millisecond duration to a string format
*
* #param millis A duration to convert to a string form
* #return A string of the form "X Days Y Hours Z Minutes A Seconds".
*/
public static String getDurationBreakdown(long millis) {
if(millis < 0) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must be greater than zero!");
}
long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(minutes);
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(64);
sb.append(days);
sb.append(" Days ");
sb.append(hours);
sb.append(" Hours ");
sb.append(minutes);
sb.append(" Minutes ");
sb.append(seconds);
sb.append(" Seconds");
return(sb.toString());
}

long time = 1536259;
return (new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss:SSS")).format(new Date(time));
Prints:
25:36:259

Using the java.time package in Java 8:
Instant start = Instant.now();
Thread.sleep(63553);
Instant end = Instant.now();
System.out.println(Duration.between(start, end));
Output is in ISO 8601 Duration format: PT1M3.553S (1 minute and 3.553 seconds).

Uhm... how many milliseconds are in a second? And in a minute? Division is not that hard.
int seconds = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) % 60);
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) / 60);
Continue like that for hours, days, weeks, months, year, decades, whatever.

I would not pull in the extra dependency just for that (division is not that hard, after all), but if you are using Commons Lang anyway, there are the DurationFormatUtils.
Example Usage (adapted from here):
import org.apache.commons.lang3.time.DurationFormatUtils
public String getAge(long value) {
long currentTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
long age = currentTime - value;
String ageString = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(age, "d") + "d";
if ("0d".equals(ageString)) {
ageString = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(age, "H") + "h";
if ("0h".equals(ageString)) {
ageString = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(age, "m") + "m";
if ("0m".equals(ageString)) {
ageString = DurationFormatUtils.formatDuration(age, "s") + "s";
if ("0s".equals(ageString)) {
ageString = age + "ms";
}
}
}
}
return ageString;
}
Example:
long lastTime = System.currentTimeMillis() - 2000;
System.out.println("Elapsed time: " + getAge(lastTime));
//Output: 2s
Note: To get millis from two LocalDateTime objects you can use:
long age = ChronoUnit.MILLIS.between(initTime, LocalDateTime.now())

Either hand divisions, or use the SimpleDateFormat API.
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
// do your work...
long elapsed = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH 'hours', mm 'mins,' ss 'seconds'");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT+0"));
System.out.println(df.format(new Date(elapsed)));
Edit by Bombe: It has been shown in the comments that this approach only works for smaller durations (i.e. less than a day).

Just to add more info
if you want to format like: HH:mm:ss
0 <= HH <= infinite
0 <= mm < 60
0 <= ss < 60
use this:
int h = (int) ((startTimeInMillis / 1000) / 3600);
int m = (int) (((startTimeInMillis / 1000) / 60) % 60);
int s = (int) ((startTimeInMillis / 1000) % 60);
I just had this issue now and figured this out

Shortest solution:
Here's probably the shortest which also deals with time zones.
System.out.printf("%tT", millis-TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset());
Which outputs for example:
00:18:32
Explanation:
%tT is the time formatted for the 24-hour clock as %tH:%tM:%tS.
%tT also accepts longs as input, so no need to create a Date. printf() will simply print the time specified in milliseconds, but in the current time zone therefore we have to subtract the raw offset of the current time zone so that 0 milliseconds will be 0 hours and not the time offset value of the current time zone.
Note #1: If you need the result as a String, you can get it like this:
String t = String.format("%tT", millis-TimeZone.getDefault().getRawOffset());
Note #2: This only gives correct result if millis is less than a day because the day part is not included in the output.

I think the best way is:
String.format("%d min, %d sec",
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(length)/60,
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(length) % 60 );

Revisiting #brent-nash contribution, we could use modulus function instead of subtractions and use String.format method for the result string:
/**
* Convert a millisecond duration to a string format
*
* #param millis A duration to convert to a string form
* #return A string of the form "X Days Y Hours Z Minutes A Seconds B Milliseconds".
*/
public static String getDurationBreakdown(long millis) {
if (millis < 0) {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must be greater than zero!");
}
long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(millis);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis) % 24;
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis) % 60;
long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) % 60;
long milliseconds = millis % 1000;
return String.format("%d Days %d Hours %d Minutes %d Seconds %d Milliseconds",
days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);
}

Joda-Time
Using Joda-Time:
DateTime startTime = new DateTime();
// do something
DateTime endTime = new DateTime();
Duration duration = new Duration(startTime, endTime);
Period period = duration.toPeriod().normalizedStandard(PeriodType.time());
System.out.println(PeriodFormat.getDefault().print(period));

For those who looking for Kotlin code:
fun converter(millis: Long): String =
String.format(
"%02d : %02d : %02d",
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis),
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis) - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMinutes(
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis)
),
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) - TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(
TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis)
)
)
Sample output: 09 : 10 : 26

My simple calculation:
String millisecToTime(int millisec) {
int sec = millisec/1000;
int second = sec % 60;
int minute = sec / 60;
if (minute >= 60) {
int hour = minute / 60;
minute %= 60;
return hour + ":" + (minute < 10 ? "0" + minute : minute) + ":" + (second < 10 ? "0" + second : second);
}
return minute + ":" + (second < 10 ? "0" + second : second);
}
Happy coding :)

Firstly, System.currentTimeMillis() and Instant.now() are not ideal for timing. They both report the wall-clock time, which the computer doesn't know precisely, and which can move erratically, including going backwards if for example the NTP daemon corrects the system time. If your timing happens on a single machine then you should instead use System.nanoTime().
Secondly, from Java 8 onwards java.time.Duration is the best way to represent a duration:
long start = System.nanoTime();
// do things...
long end = System.nanoTime();
Duration duration = Duration.ofNanos(end - start);
System.out.println(duration); // Prints "PT18M19.511627776S"
System.out.printf("%d Hours %d Minutes %d Seconds%n",
duration.toHours(), duration.toMinutes() % 60, duration.getSeconds() % 60);
// prints "0 Hours 18 Minutes 19 Seconds"

for Android below API 9
(String.format("%d hr %d min, %d sec", millis/(1000*60*60), (millis%(1000*60*60))/(1000*60), ((millis%(1000*60*60))%(1000*60))/1000))

For small times, less than an hour, I prefer:
long millis = ...
System.out.printf("%1$TM:%1$TS", millis);
// or
String str = String.format("%1$TM:%1$TS", millis);
for longer intervalls:
private static final long HOUR = TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(1);
...
if (millis < HOUR) {
System.out.printf("%1$TM:%1$TS%n", millis);
} else {
System.out.printf("%d:%2$TM:%2$TS%n", millis / HOUR, millis % HOUR);
}

Here is an answer based on Brent Nash answer, Hope that helps !
public static String getDurationBreakdown(long millis)
{
String[] units = {" Days ", " Hours ", " Minutes ", " Seconds "};
Long[] values = new Long[units.length];
if(millis < 0)
{
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must be greater than zero!");
}
values[0] = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(values[0]);
values[1] = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(values[1]);
values[2] = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis);
millis -= TimeUnit.MINUTES.toMillis(values[2]);
values[3] = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(64);
boolean startPrinting = false;
for(int i = 0; i < units.length; i++){
if( !startPrinting && values[i] != 0)
startPrinting = true;
if(startPrinting){
sb.append(values[i]);
sb.append(units[i]);
}
}
return(sb.toString());
}

long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
// do your work...
long endTime=System.currentTimeMillis();
long diff=endTime-startTime;
long hours=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(diff);
diff=diff-(hours*60*60*1000);
long min=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff);
diff=diff-(min*60*1000);
long seconds=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
//hour, min and seconds variables contains the time elapsed on your work

This is easier in Java 9:
Duration elapsedTime = Duration.ofMillis(millisDiff );
String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
"%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
elapsedTime.toHours(),
elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
This produces a string like 0 hours, 39 mins, 9 seconds.
If you want to round to whole seconds before formatting:
elapsedTime = elapsedTime.plusMillis(500).truncatedTo(ChronoUnit.SECONDS);
To leave out the hours if they are 0:
long hours = elapsedTime.toHours();
String humanReadableElapsedTime;
if (hours == 0) {
humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
"%d mins, %d seconds",
elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
} else {
humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
"%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
hours,
elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
}
Now we can have for example 39 mins, 9 seconds.
To print minutes and seconds with leading zero to make them always two digits, just insert 02 into the relevant format specifiers, thus:
String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
"%d hours, %02d mins, %02d seconds",
elapsedTime.toHours(),
elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
Now we can have for example 0 hours, 39 mins, 09 seconds.

for correct strings ("1hour, 3sec", "3 min" but not "0 hour, 0 min, 3 sec") i write this code:
int seconds = (int)(millis / 1000) % 60 ;
int minutes = (int)((millis / (1000*60)) % 60);
int hours = (int)((millis / (1000*60*60)) % 24);
int days = (int)((millis / (1000*60*60*24)) % 365);
int years = (int)(millis / 1000*60*60*24*365);
ArrayList<String> timeArray = new ArrayList<String>();
if(years > 0)
timeArray.add(String.valueOf(years) + "y");
if(days > 0)
timeArray.add(String.valueOf(days) + "d");
if(hours>0)
timeArray.add(String.valueOf(hours) + "h");
if(minutes>0)
timeArray.add(String.valueOf(minutes) + "min");
if(seconds>0)
timeArray.add(String.valueOf(seconds) + "sec");
String time = "";
for (int i = 0; i < timeArray.size(); i++)
{
time = time + timeArray.get(i);
if (i != timeArray.size() - 1)
time = time + ", ";
}
if (time == "")
time = "0 sec";

If you know the time difference would be less than an hour, then you can use following code:
Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();
c2.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 51);
long diff = c2.getTimeInMillis() - c1.getTimeInMillis();
c2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
c2.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
c2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss");
long diff1 = c2.getTimeInMillis() + diff;
System.out.println(df.format(new Date(diff1)));
It will result to: 51:00

This answer is similar to some answers above. However, I feel that it would be beneficial because, unlike other answers, this will remove any extra commas or whitespace and handles abbreviation.
/**
* Converts milliseconds to "x days, x hours, x mins, x secs"
*
* #param millis
* The milliseconds
* #param longFormat
* {#code true} to use "seconds" and "minutes" instead of "secs" and "mins"
* #return A string representing how long in days/hours/minutes/seconds millis is.
*/
public static String millisToString(long millis, boolean longFormat) {
if (millis < 1000) {
return String.format("0 %s", longFormat ? "seconds" : "secs");
}
String[] units = {
"day", "hour", longFormat ? "minute" : "min", longFormat ? "second" : "sec"
};
long[] times = new long[4];
times[0] = TimeUnit.DAYS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[0], TimeUnit.DAYS);
times[1] = TimeUnit.HOURS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[1], TimeUnit.HOURS);
times[2] = TimeUnit.MINUTES.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
millis -= TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.convert(times[2], TimeUnit.MINUTES);
times[3] = TimeUnit.SECONDS.convert(millis, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
if (times[i] > 0) {
s.append(String.format("%d %s%s, ", times[i], units[i], times[i] == 1 ? "" : "s"));
}
}
return s.toString().substring(0, s.length() - 2);
}
/**
* Converts milliseconds to "x days, x hours, x mins, x secs"
*
* #param millis
* The milliseconds
* #return A string representing how long in days/hours/mins/secs millis is.
*/
public static String millisToString(long millis) {
return millisToString(millis, false);
}

There is a problem. When milliseconds is 59999, actually it is 1 minute but it will be computed as 59 seconds and 999 milliseconds is lost.
Here is a modified version based on previous answers, which can solve this loss:
public static String formatTime(long millis) {
long seconds = Math.round((double) millis / 1000);
long hours = TimeUnit.SECONDS.toHours(seconds);
if (hours > 0)
seconds -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toSeconds(hours);
long minutes = seconds > 0 ? TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMinutes(seconds) : 0;
if (minutes > 0)
seconds -= TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(minutes);
return hours > 0 ? String.format("%02d:%02d:%02d", hours, minutes, seconds) : String.format("%02d:%02d", minutes, seconds);
}

I have covered this in another answer but you can do:
public static Map<TimeUnit,Long> computeDiff(Date date1, Date date2) {
long diffInMillies = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
List<TimeUnit> units = new ArrayList<TimeUnit>(EnumSet.allOf(TimeUnit.class));
Collections.reverse(units);
Map<TimeUnit,Long> result = new LinkedHashMap<TimeUnit,Long>();
long milliesRest = diffInMillies;
for ( TimeUnit unit : units ) {
long diff = unit.convert(milliesRest,TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
long diffInMilliesForUnit = unit.toMillis(diff);
milliesRest = milliesRest - diffInMilliesForUnit;
result.put(unit,diff);
}
return result;
}
The output is something like Map:{DAYS=1, HOURS=3, MINUTES=46, SECONDS=40, MILLISECONDS=0, MICROSECONDS=0, NANOSECONDS=0}, with the units ordered.
It's up to you to figure out how to internationalize this data according to the target locale.

DurationFormatUtils.formatDurationHMS(long)

I modified #MyKuLLSKI 's answer and added plurlization support. I took out seconds because I didn't need them, though feel free to re-add it if you need it.
public static String intervalToHumanReadableTime(int intervalMins) {
if(intervalMins <= 0) {
return "0";
} else {
long intervalMs = intervalMins * 60 * 1000;
long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(intervalMs);
intervalMs -= TimeUnit.DAYS.toMillis(days);
long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(intervalMs);
intervalMs -= TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(hours);
long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(intervalMs);
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(12);
if (days >= 1) {
sb.append(days).append(" day").append(pluralize(days)).append(", ");
}
if (hours >= 1) {
sb.append(hours).append(" hour").append(pluralize(hours)).append(", ");
}
if (minutes >= 1) {
sb.append(minutes).append(" minute").append(pluralize(minutes));
} else {
sb.delete(sb.length()-2, sb.length()-1);
}
return(sb.toString());
}
}
public static String pluralize(long val) {
return (Math.round(val) > 1 ? "s" : "");
}

Use java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit, and use this simple method:
private static long timeDiff(Date date, Date date2, TimeUnit unit) {
long milliDiff=date2.getTime()-date.getTime();
long unitDiff = unit.convert(milliDiff, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
return unitDiff;
}
For example:
SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");
Date firstDate = sdf.parse("06/24/2017 04:30:00");
Date secondDate = sdf.parse("07/24/2017 05:00:15");
Date thirdDate = sdf.parse("06/24/2017 06:00:15");
System.out.println("days difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,secondDate,TimeUnit.DAYS));
System.out.println("hours difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.HOURS));
System.out.println("minutes difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.MINUTES));
System.out.println("seconds difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.SECONDS));

This topic has been well covered, I just wanted to share my functions perhaps you can make use of these rather than importing an entire library.
public long getSeconds(ms) {
return (ms/1000%60);
}
public long getMinutes(ms) {
return (ms/(1000*60)%60);
}
public long getHours(ms) {
return ((ms/(1000*60*60))%24);
}