Time String to int seconds

**willemuk** · March 7th, 2012, 10:20 AM

Please help!

I am trying to convert a time string to an integer in seconds (eg. 1:25 = 85 secs) but cannot seem to figure out how best to go about doing this. I have so far used a delimiter to remove the ":" from the string and separate the minutes from the seconds. I also have a method to take minutes and seconds and add them to form only seconds. Both methods are separate but I would like to combine them somehow. Could someone please show me how this is possible. I may not even be on the right track and it is proving very frustrating. Thanks

public void trackLength() {
double seconds = 0, secs, mins;
Scanner Input = new Scanner(System.in);

// String to split.
String str = "3:25";
String[] tempString;

// delimiter
String delimiter = ":";

// given string will be split.
tempString = str.split(delimiter);

System.out.println("Enter minutes: ");
mins = Input.nextDouble();

System.out.println("Enter seconds: ");
secs = Input.nextDouble();

//makes calculations of the values needed
seconds += secs;
seconds += 60 * mins;
}

**KevinWorkman** · March 7th, 2012, 10:25 AM

I'm really not sure what this method is supposed to be doing. Why are you getting user input in the middle of converting hard-coded input?

You're were closer when you had things split up into separate methods.

**willemuk** · March 7th, 2012, 10:31 AM

What I'm trying to achieve is one method not two. I simply need it to convert the time string into int seconds ready for later manipulation. I am guessing I am going about this the wrong way but I cannot think of a better way to do it. sorry

**KevinWorkman** · March 7th, 2012, 10:39 AM

If you want a single method, can't you just call the other two methods from that single method?

**willemuk** · March 7th, 2012, 10:42 AM

Call me dumb lol. But I really wouldn't know how. I am just a beginner at this and am really drowning at the moment but am determined to grasp it somehow. Is there a working example anywhere that I can access to see how it works?

**KevinWorkman** · March 7th, 2012, 10:45 AM

I don't know, say you have these two methods:

public void doThing1(){
   //thing 1
}
 
public void doThing2(){
   //thing 2
}

...and then you are tasked with creating a single method that accomplishes both thing 1 and thing 2. Instead of copying and pasting both things into a new method, doesn't it make sense just to do this?

public void doBothThings(){
   doThing1();
   doThing2();
}

**willemuk** · March 7th, 2012, 10:54 AM

I understand what you mean but what I want to do is remove this manual input:

System.out.println("Enter minutes: ");
mins = Input.nextDouble();

System.out.println("Enter seconds: ");
secs = Input.nextDouble();

and create an automatic input from the minutes and seconds generated from this method

double seconds = 0, secs, mins;
Scanner Input = new Scanner(System.in);

// String to split.
String str = "3:25";
String[] tempString;

// delimiter
String delimiter = ":";

// given string will be split.
tempString = str.split(delimiter);

and then convert them into ints to be converted into seconds with this part of the method

//makes calculations of the values needed
seconds += secs;
seconds += 60 * mins;

Does that make things a bit clearer. I know what I am trying to achieve but its hard to explain. sorry again but thanks for taking the time to help.

**KevinWorkman** · March 7th, 2012, 10:59 AM

I think your requirements are only a little bit more complicated than my example.

My doThing1() method, for you, should take no parameters, but prompt a user for input and return a String such as "3:25".

My doThing2() method, for you, should take a single String parameter, such as "3:25", convert it into minutes, and return that as an int.

My doBothThings() method, for you, should call the doThing1() method to retrieve the String, then pass it into the doThing2() method to get the int, then do something with that int.

**willemuk** · March 7th, 2012, 11:24 AM

Ok I think I understand what your saying. I am clear on your theory. My time values are minutes and seconds extracted from strings within a file. What I am having difficulty in doing is the conversion from 3:25 as a string to 205 seconds as an integer. My simple question would be then how is this achieved. Do I still use two methods or can this be achieved in one. So String to int conversion (in seconds).

**copeg** · March 7th, 2012, 12:14 PM

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