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

Question

I want to take two times (in seconds since epoch) and show the difference between the two in formats like:

• 2 minutes
• 1 hour, 15 minutes
• 3 hours, 9 minutes
• 1 minute ago
• 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

How can I accomplish this??

Answer 1

^{Since everyone shouts "YOODAA!!!" but noone posts a concrete example, here's my contribution.}

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

Here's a kickoff example:

DateTime myBirthDate = new DateTime(1978, 3, 26, 12, 35, 0, 0); DateTime now = new DateTime(); Period period = new Period(myBirthDate, now);  PeriodFormatter formatter = new PeriodFormatterBuilder()     .appendYears().appendSuffix(" year, ", " years, ")     .appendMonths().appendSuffix(" month, ", " months, ")     .appendWeeks().appendSuffix(" week, ", " weeks, ")     .appendDays().appendSuffix(" day, ", " days, ")     .appendHours().appendSuffix(" hour, ", " hours, ")     .appendMinutes().appendSuffix(" minute, ", " minutes, ")     .appendSeconds().appendSuffix(" second", " seconds")     .printZeroNever()     .toFormatter();  String elapsed = formatter.print(period); System.out.println(elapsed + " ago"); 

Much more clear and concise, isn't it?

This prints by now

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

^{_{(Cough, old, cough)}}