Joda time calculating the days, hours, minutes, and seconds between two datetime objects

Question

I am trying to find the days, hours, minutes and seconds between two date/times. I thought I could use period and I tried the code below but I get a non nonsensical answer.

    DateTime dt1 = new DateTime("2004-12-13T21:39:45.618-06:00");
    DateTime dt2 = new DateTime("2004-12-13T21:39:45.618-08:00");
    Period p = new Period(dt1, dt2);

    System.out.println("Test: " + p);

From this I get output:

I/System.out: Test: PT2H

Not sure what this is meant to mean.

Thanks for your help

Answer 1

toString() method in Period gives you the value as ISO8601 duration format.

From the API:

Gets the value as a String in the style of the ISO8601 duration format. Technically, the output can breach the ISO specification as weeks may be included. For example, "PT6H3M5S" represents 6 hours, 3 minutes, 5 seconds.

As you ask to get separately the days , hours , minutes and seconds you can use the convenient get methods from the API:

import org.joda.time.DateTime;
import org.joda.time.Period;

...
DateTime dt1 = new DateTime("2004-12-13T21:39:45.618-06:00");
DateTime dt2 = new DateTime("2004-12-13T21:39:45.618-08:00");
Period p = new Period(dt1, dt2);

System.out.println("DAYS: " + p.getDays())
System.out.println("HOURS: " + p.getHours());
System.out.println("MINUTES: " + p.getMinutes());
System.out.println("SECONDS: " + p.getSeconds());

Or alternatively as other answers suggests use PeriodFormatter .

Answer 2

Period is printed in ISO format

The standard ISO format - P yYmMwWd D T hH mMsS.

If you need to find days, hours, minutes and seconds between two days, you should convert period to specific type. Eg:

  Period p = new Period(dt1, dt2);
  System.out.println("Days: " + p.toStandardDays().getDays());
  System.out.println("Hours: " + p.toStandardHours().getHours());
  System.out.println("Minutes: " + p.toStandardMinutes().getMinutes());
  System.out.println("Seconds: " + p.toStandardSeconds().getSeconds());

or use special static methods in classes Days , Hours , Minutes and Seconds

  System.out.println("Days: " + Days.daysBetween(dt1, dt2));
  System.out.println("Hours: " + Hours.hoursBetween(dt1, dt2));
  System.out.println("Minutes: " + Minutes.minutesBetween(dt1, dt2));
  System.out.println("Seconds: " + Seconds.secondsBetween(dt1, dt2));

Answer 3

I think you'll have to format the object of period. Refer this link Period to string

Answer 4

You need to format your Period . A simple way is to use the default one like this:

PeriodFormat.getDefault().print(period)

You can also create your own format with PeriodFormatter .