How to convert milliseconds into human readable form?

Question

I need to convert an arbitrary amount of milliseconds into Days, Hours, Minutes Second.

For example: 10 Days, 5 hours, 13 minutes, 1 second.

Answer 1

Well, since nobody else has stepped up, I'll write the easy code to do this:

x = ms / 1000
seconds = x % 60
x /= 60
minutes = x % 60
x /= 60
hours = x % 24
x /= 24
days = x

I'm just glad you stopped at days and didn't ask for months. :)

Note that in the above, it is assumed that / represents truncating integer division. If you use this code in a language where / represents floating point division, you will need to manually truncate the results of the division as needed.

Answer 2

Let A be the amount of milliseconds. Then you have:

seconds=(A/1000)%60
minutes=(A/(1000*60))%60
hours=(A/(1000*60*60))%24

and so on (% is the modulus operator).

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Both solutions below use javascript (I had no idea the solution was language agnostic!). Both solutions will need to be extended if capturing durations > 1 month.

Solution 1: Use the Date object

var date = new Date(536643021);
var str = '';
str += date.getUTCDate()-1 + " days, ";
str += date.getUTCHours() + " hours, ";
str += date.getUTCMinutes() + " minutes, ";
str += date.getUTCSeconds() + " seconds, ";
str += date.getUTCMilliseconds() + " millis";
console.log(str);

Gives:

"6 days, 5 hours, 4 minutes, 3 seconds, 21 millis"

Libraries are helpful, but why use a library when you can re-invent the wheel! :)

Solution 2: Write your own parser

var getDuration = function(millis){
    var dur = {};
    var units = [
        {label:"millis",    mod:1000},
        {label:"seconds",   mod:60},
        {label:"minutes",   mod:60},
        {label:"hours",     mod:24},
        {label:"days",      mod:31}
    ];
    // calculate the individual unit values...
    units.forEach(function(u){
        millis = (millis - (dur[u.label] = (millis % u.mod))) / u.mod;
    });
    // convert object to a string representation...
    var nonZero = function(u){ return dur[u.label]; };
    dur.toString = function(){
        return units
            .reverse()
            .filter(nonZero)
            .map(function(u){
                return dur[u.label] + " " + (dur[u.label]==1?u.label.slice(0,-1):u.label);
            })
            .join(', ');
    };
    return dur;
};

Creates a "duration" object, with whatever fields you require. Formatting a timestamp then becomes simple...

console.log(getDuration(536643021).toString());

Gives:

"6 days, 5 hours, 4 minutes, 3 seconds, 21 millis"

Answer 4

Apache Commons Lang has a DurationFormatUtils that has very helpful methods like formatDurationWords.

Answer 5

You should use the datetime functions of whatever language you're using, but, just for fun here's the code:

int milliseconds = someNumber;

int seconds = milliseconds / 1000;

int minutes = seconds / 60;

seconds %= 60;

int hours = minutes / 60;

minutes %= 60;

int days = hours / 24;

hours %= 24;

Answer 6

This is a method I wrote. It takes an integer milliseconds value and returns a human-readable String:

public String convertMS(int ms) {
    int seconds = (int) ((ms / 1000) % 60);
    int minutes = (int) (((ms / 1000) / 60) % 60);
    int hours = (int) ((((ms / 1000) / 60) / 60) % 24);

    String sec, min, hrs;
    if(seconds<10)  sec="0"+seconds;
    else            sec= ""+seconds;
    if(minutes<10)  min="0"+minutes;
    else            min= ""+minutes;
    if(hours<10)    hrs="0"+hours;
    else            hrs= ""+hours;

    if(hours == 0)  return min+":"+sec;
    else    return hrs+":"+min+":"+sec;

}

Answer 7

function convertTime(time) {        
    var millis= time % 1000;
    time = parseInt(time/1000);
    var seconds = time % 60;
    time = parseInt(time/60);
    var minutes = time % 60;
    time = parseInt(time/60);
    var hours = time % 24;
    var out = "";
    if(hours && hours > 0) out += hours + " " + ((hours == 1)?"hr":"hrs") + " ";
    if(minutes && minutes > 0) out += minutes + " " + ((minutes == 1)?"min":"mins") + " ";
    if(seconds && seconds > 0) out += seconds + " " + ((seconds == 1)?"sec":"secs") + " ";
    if(millis&& millis> 0) out += millis+ " " + ((millis== 1)?"msec":"msecs") + " ";
    return out.trim();
}

Answer 8

I would suggest using whatever date/time functions/libraries your language/framework of choice provides. Also check out string formatting functions as they often provide easy ways to pass date/timestamps and output a human readable string format.

Answer 9

Your choices are simple:

1. Write the code to do the conversion (ie, divide by milliSecondsPerDay to get days and use the modulus to divide by milliSecondsPerHour to get hours and use the modulus to divide by milliSecondsPerMinute and divide by 1000 for seconds. milliSecondsPerMinute = 60000, milliSecondsPerHour = 60 * milliSecondsPerMinute, milliSecondsPerDay = 24 * milliSecondsPerHour.
2. Use an operating routine of some kind. UNIX and Windows both have structures that you can get from a Ticks or seconds type value.

Answer 10

Long serverUptimeSeconds = 
    (System.currentTimeMillis() - SINCE_TIME_IN_MILLISECONDS) / 1000;


String serverUptimeText = 
String.format("%d days %d hours %d minutes %d seconds",
serverUptimeSeconds / 86400,
( serverUptimeSeconds % 86400) / 3600 ,
((serverUptimeSeconds % 86400) % 3600 ) / 60,
((serverUptimeSeconds % 86400) % 3600 ) % 60
);

Answer 11

Long expireTime = 69l;
Long tempParam = 0l;

Long seconds = math.mod(expireTime, 60);
tempParam = expireTime - seconds;
expireTime = tempParam/60;
Long minutes = math.mod(expireTime, 60);
tempParam = expireTime - minutes;
expireTime = expireTime/60;
Long hours = math.mod(expireTime, 24);
tempParam = expireTime - hours;
expireTime = expireTime/24;
Long days = math.mod(expireTime, 30);

system.debug(days + '.' + hours + ':' + minutes + ':' + seconds);

This should print: 0.0:1:9

Answer 12

Why just don't do something like this:

var ms = 86400;

var seconds = ms / 1000; //86.4

var minutes = seconds / 60; //1.4400000000000002

var hours = minutes / 60; //0.024000000000000004

var days = hours / 24; //0.0010000000000000002

And dealing with float precision e.g. Number(minutes.toFixed(5)) //1.44

Answer 13

In java

public static String formatMs(long millis) {
    long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis);
    long mins = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis);
    long secs = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis);
    return String.format("%dh %d min, %d sec",
            hours,
            mins - TimeUnit.HOURS.toMinutes(hours),
            secs - TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(mins)
    );
}

Gives something like this:

12h 1 min, 34 sec

Answer 14

I'm not able to comment first answer to your question, but there's a small mistake. You should use parseInt or Math.floor to convert floating point numbers to integer, i

var days, hours, minutes, seconds, x;
x = ms / 1000;
seconds = Math.floor(x % 60);
x /= 60;
minutes = Math.floor(x % 60);
x /= 60;
hours = Math.floor(x % 24);
x /= 24;
days = Math.floor(x);

Personally, I use CoffeeScript in my projects and my code looks like that:

getFormattedTime : (ms)->
        x = ms / 1000
        seconds = Math.floor x % 60
        x /= 60
        minutes = Math.floor x % 60
        x /= 60
        hours = Math.floor x % 24
        x /= 24
        days = Math.floor x
        formattedTime = "#{seconds}s"
        if minutes then formattedTime = "#{minutes}m " + formattedTime
        if hours then formattedTime = "#{hours}h " + formattedTime
        formattedTime 

Answer 15

This is a solution. Later you can split by ":" and take the values of the array

/**
 * Converts milliseconds to human readeable language separated by ":"
 * Example: 190980000 --> 2:05:3 --> 2days 5hours 3min
 */
function dhm(t){
    var cd = 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000,
        ch = 60 * 60 * 1000,
        d = Math.floor(t / cd),
        h = '0' + Math.floor( (t - d * cd) / ch),
        m = '0' + Math.round( (t - d * cd - h * ch) / 60000);
    return [d, h.substr(-2), m.substr(-2)].join(':');
}

var delay = 190980000;                   
var fullTime = dhm(delay);
console.log(fullTime);

Answer 16

Here's my solution using TimeUnit.

UPDATE: I should point out that this is written in groovy, but Java is almost identical.

def remainingStr = ""

/* Days */
int days = MILLISECONDS.toDays(remainingTime) as int
remainingStr += (days == 1) ? '1 Day : ' : "${days} Days : "
remainingTime -= DAYS.toMillis(days)

/* Hours */
int hours = MILLISECONDS.toHours(remainingTime) as int
remainingStr += (hours == 1) ? '1 Hour : ' : "${hours} Hours : "
remainingTime -= HOURS.toMillis(hours)

/* Minutes */
int minutes = MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(remainingTime) as int
remainingStr += (minutes == 1) ? '1 Minute : ' : "${minutes} Minutes : "
remainingTime -= MINUTES.toMillis(minutes)

/* Seconds */
int seconds = MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(remainingTime) as int
remainingStr += (seconds == 1) ? '1 Second' : "${seconds} Seconds"

Answer 17

A flexible way to do it :
(Not made for current date but good enough for durations)

/**
convert duration to a ms/sec/min/hour/day/week array
@param {int}        msTime              : time in milliseconds 
@param {bool}       fillEmpty(optional) : fill array values even when they are 0.
@param {string[]}   suffixes(optional)  : add suffixes to returned values.
                                        values are filled with missings '0'
@return {int[]/string[]} : time values from higher to lower(ms) range.
*/
var msToTimeList=function(msTime,fillEmpty,suffixes){
    suffixes=(suffixes instanceof Array)?suffixes:[];   //suffixes is optional
    var timeSteps=[1000,60,60,24,7];    // time ranges : ms/sec/min/hour/day/week
    timeSteps.push(1000000);    //add very big time at the end to stop cutting
    var result=[];
    for(var i=0;(msTime>0||i<1||fillEmpty)&&i<timeSteps.length;i++){
        var timerange = msTime%timeSteps[i];
        if(typeof(suffixes[i])=="string"){
            timerange+=suffixes[i]; // add suffix (converting )
            // and fill zeros :
            while(  i<timeSteps.length-1 &&
                    timerange.length<((timeSteps[i]-1)+suffixes[i]).length  )
                timerange="0"+timerange;
        }
        result.unshift(timerange);  // stack time range from higher to lower
        msTime = Math.floor(msTime/timeSteps[i]);
    }
    return result;
};

NB : you could also set timeSteps as parameter if you want to control the time ranges.

how to use (copy an test):

var elsapsed = Math.floor(Math.random()*3000000000);

console.log(    "elsapsed (labels) = "+
        msToTimeList(elsapsed,false,["ms","sec","min","h","days","weeks"]).join("/")    );

console.log(    "half hour : "+msToTimeList(elsapsed,true)[3]<30?"first":"second"   );

console.log(    "elsapsed (classic) = "+
        msToTimeList(elsapsed,false,["","","","","",""]).join(" : ")    );

Answer 18

I suggest to use http://www.ocpsoft.org/prettytime/ library..

it's very simple to get time interval in human readable form like

PrettyTime p = new PrettyTime(); System.out.println(p.format(new Date()));

it will print like "moments from now"

other example

PrettyTime p = new PrettyTime()); Date d = new Date(System.currentTimeMillis()); d.setHours(d.getHours() - 1); String ago = p.format(d);

then string ago = "1 hour ago"

Answer 19

Here is more precise method in JAVA , I have implemented this simple logic , hope this will help you:

    public String getDuration(String _currentTimemilliSecond)
    {
        long _currentTimeMiles = 1;         
        int x = 0;
        int seconds = 0;
        int minutes = 0;
        int hours = 0;
        int days = 0;
        int month = 0;
        int year = 0;

        try 
        {
            _currentTimeMiles = Long.parseLong(_currentTimemilliSecond);
            /**  x in seconds **/   
            x = (int) (_currentTimeMiles / 1000) ; 
            seconds = x ;

            if(seconds >59)
            {
                minutes = seconds/60 ;

                if(minutes > 59)
                {
                    hours = minutes/60;

                    if(hours > 23)
                    {
                        days = hours/24 ;

                        if(days > 30)
                        {
                            month = days/30;

                            if(month > 11)
                            {
                                year = month/12;

                                Log.d("Year", year);
                                Log.d("Month", month%12);
                                Log.d("Days", days % 30);
                                Log.d("hours ", hours % 24);
                                Log.d("Minutes ", minutes % 60);
                                Log.d("Seconds  ", seconds % 60);   

                                return "Year "+year + " Month "+month%12 +" Days " +days%30 +" hours "+hours%24 +" Minutes "+minutes %60+" Seconds "+seconds%60;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                Log.d("Month", month);
                                Log.d("Days", days % 30);
                                Log.d("hours ", hours % 24);
                                Log.d("Minutes ", minutes % 60);
                                Log.d("Seconds  ", seconds % 60);   

                                return "Month "+month +" Days " +days%30 +" hours "+hours%24 +" Minutes "+minutes %60+" Seconds "+seconds%60;
                            }

                        }
                        else
                        {
                            Log.d("Days", days );
                            Log.d("hours ", hours % 24);
                            Log.d("Minutes ", minutes % 60);
                            Log.d("Seconds  ", seconds % 60);   

                            return "Days " +days +" hours "+hours%24 +" Minutes "+minutes %60+" Seconds "+seconds%60;
                        }

                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Log.d("hours ", hours);
                        Log.d("Minutes ", minutes % 60);
                        Log.d("Seconds  ", seconds % 60);

                        return "hours "+hours+" Minutes "+minutes %60+" Seconds "+seconds%60;
                    }
                }
                else
                {
                    Log.d("Minutes ", minutes);
                    Log.d("Seconds  ", seconds % 60);

                    return "Minutes "+minutes +" Seconds "+seconds%60;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                Log.d("Seconds ", x);
                return " Seconds "+seconds;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e) 
        {
            Log.e(getClass().getName().toString(), e.toString());
        }
        return "";
    }

    private Class Log
    {
        public static void d(String tag , int value)
        {
            System.out.println("##### [ Debug ]  ## "+tag +" :: "+value);
        }
    }