String to date conversion not working correctly in Javascript

Question

I need to get time difference in this format: "HH:MM:SS" using a Javascript.

I have tried this:

var diff = Date.parse( time2) - Date.parse( time1 );
var total_time = (diff / 1000 / 60 / 60) + ":" + (diff / 1000 / 60) + ":" + (diff / 1000);

and this:

var diff = new Date( time2) - new Date( time1 );
var total_time = (diff / 1000 / 60 / 60) + ":" + (diff / 1000 / 60) + ":" + (diff / 1000);

These are the values of time2 and time1:

time1: "2012-11-07 15:20:32.161"
time2: "2012-11-07 17:55:41.451"

And result I am getting in both cases is:

total_time= 0.5250819444444444:31.504916666666666:1890.295

Which you can see is not correct

If he really just needs the difference at one point building it yourself might be better than including yet another library. Plus it's nice exercise. :D — clentfort
– clentfort, Commented Nov 8, 2012 at 19:53

Yogendra Singh · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-08 19:43:50Z

2

I think you are getting wrong diff value because of the millisecond part in the date delimited by .. Its not being accepted correctly by the data parser.

Try using the date and time part excluding the milliseconds as below:

 var diff = Date.parse(time2.split(".")[0]) - Date.parse( time1.split(".")[0]);

Also while you are getting wrong difference diff, your time computation is also wrong.

It should be:

       var second = Math.floor(diff /1000);
        //convert the seconds into minutes and remainder is updated seconds value
       var minute = Math.floor(second /60);
       second = second % 60;

        //convert the minutes into hours and remainder is updated minutes value
       var hour = Math.floor(minute/60);
       minute = minute %60;

       var total_time= hour+":" minute+":"+second;

edited Nov 8, 2012 at 19:43

answered Nov 8, 2012 at 19:36

Yogendra Singh

34.5k7 gold badges66 silver badges73 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

4 Comments

clentfort Over a year ago

Well when I run your or mine code on jsfiddle it puts 2:35:9 out which is clearly the correct difference, including the . for the milliseconds.

user123_456 Over a year ago

thank you, your code is working also but @clentfort has a lower rating so I'll raise his rating a bit :)

Yogendra Singh Over a year ago

@clentfort: I don't see any difference in both the answers in the way you are computing the difference. As I highlighted, its parser issue, which is not coming when you use new Date().

clentfort Over a year ago

Thanks. :) I actually prefer this method above mine since it is not that verbose. I choose the more verbose way to show you where the problem was.

clentfort · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-08 19:42:42Z

You forgot to remove the number of milliseconds you already calculated from diff. Here is a very verbose example on how you do it in a propper way.

var time1 = "2012-11-07 15:20:32.161",
    time2 = "2012-11-07 17:55:41.451",

    SECOND = 1000,
    MINUTE = SECOND* 60,
    HOUR = MINUTE* 60;

var diff = new Date(time2) - new Date(time1);

var hours = Math.floor(diff / HOUR); // Calculate how many times a full hour fits into diff
diff = diff - (hours * HOUR); // Remove hours from difference, we already caluclated those
var minutes = Math.floor(diff / MINUTE); // Calculate how many times a full minute fits into diff
diff = diff - (minutes * MINUTE); // Remove minutes from difference
var seconds = Math.floor(diff / SECOND); // As before
diff = diff - (seconds * SECOND);
var rest = diff;

var total_time = hours + ":" + minutes + ":" + seconds + " " + rest ;

DEMO

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

String to date conversion not working correctly in Javascript

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

4 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related