Java Program to Calculate Difference Between Two Time Periods

To understand this example, you should have the knowledge of the following Java programming topics:


Example: Calculate Difference Between Two Time Periods

public class Time {

    int seconds;
    int minutes;
    int hours;

    public Time(int hours, int minutes, int seconds) {
        this.hours = hours;
        this.minutes = minutes;
        this.seconds = seconds;
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

      // create objects of Time class
        Time start = new Time(8, 12, 15);
        Time stop = new Time(12, 34, 55);
        Time diff;

        // call difference method
        diff = difference(start, stop);

        System.out.printf("TIME DIFFERENCE: %d:%d:%d - ", start.hours, start.minutes, start.seconds);
        System.out.printf("%d:%d:%d ", stop.hours, stop.minutes, stop.seconds);
        System.out.printf("= %d:%d:%d\n", diff.hours, diff.minutes, diff.seconds);
    }

    public static Time difference(Time start, Time stop)
    {
        Time diff = new Time(0, 0, 0);

        // if start second is greater
        // convert minute of stop into seconds
        // and add seconds to stop second
        if(start.seconds > stop.seconds){
            --stop.minutes;
            stop.seconds += 60;
        }

        diff.seconds = stop.seconds - start.seconds;

        // if start minute is greater
        // convert stop hour into minutes
        // and add minutes to stop minutes
        if(start.minutes > stop.minutes){
            --stop.hours;
            stop.minutes += 60;
        }

        diff.minutes = stop.minutes - start.minutes;
        diff.hours = stop.hours - start.hours;

        // return the difference time
        return(diff);
    }
}

Output

TIME DIFFERENCE: 12:34:55 - 8:12:15 = 4:22:40

In the above program, we've created a class named Time with three member variables: hours, minutes, and seconds. As the name suggests, they store hours, minutes and seconds of a given time respectively.

The Time class has a constructor that initializes the value of hours, minutes, and seconds.

We've also created a static function difference that takes two Time variables as parameters, find the difference and returns it as Time class.


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