如果你喜欢使用Java的日历API，你可以试试这个，

Date startingTime = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
//later on
Date now = Calendar.getInstance().getTime();
long timeElapsed = now.getTime() - startingTime.getTime();

Java提供了静态方法System.currentTimeMillis()。这返回一个长值，所以这是一个很好的参考。很多其他类也接受'timeInMillis'形参，这个形参也很长。

许多人发现使用Joda Time库更容易计算日期和时间。

如果您从System.currentTimeMillis()获取时间戳，那么您的时间变量应该是长变量。

值得注意的是

System.currentTimeMillis() has only millisecond accuracy at best. At worth its can be 16 ms on some windows systems. It has a lower cost that alternatives < 200 ns. System.nanoTime() is only micro-second accurate on most systems and can jump on windows systems by 100 microseconds (i.e sometimes it not as accurate as it appears) Calendar is a very expensive way to calculate time. (i can think of apart from XMLGregorianCalendar) Sometimes its the most appropriate solution but be aware you should only time long intervals.

如果您正在编写一个必须处理持续时间的应用程序，那么请查看Joda-Time，它有专门处理持续时间、间隔和周期的类。你的getDuration()方法看起来可以返回一个Joda-Time Interval:

DateTime start = new DateTime(2004, 12, 25, 0, 0, 0, 0);
DateTime end = new DateTime(2005, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0);

public Interval getInterval() {
    Interval interval = new Interval(start, end);
}

Byte Stream Reader Elapsed Time for 23.7 MB is 96 secs

import java.io.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;

class ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream
{

    private long startTime = 0;
    private long stopTime = 0;
    private boolean running = false;


    public void start() 
    {
        this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        this.running = true;
    }


    public void stop() 
    {
        this.stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        this.running = false;
    }



    public long getElapsedTime() 
    {
        long elapsed;
        if (running) {
             elapsed = (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
        }
        else {
            elapsed = (stopTime - startTime);
        }
        return elapsed;
    }



    public long getElapsedTimeSecs()                 
    {
        long elapsed;
        if (running) 
        {
            elapsed = ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000);
        }
        else
        {
            elapsed = ((stopTime - startTime) / 1000);
        }
        return elapsed;
    }





    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    {
        ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream  s = new ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingByteStream();
        s.start();

        FileInputStream in = null;
        FileOutputStream out = null;

      try {
         in = new FileInputStream("vowels.txt");   // 23.7  MB File
         out = new FileOutputStream("output.txt");

         int c;
         while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
            out.write(c);
         }
      }finally {
         if (in != null) {
            in.close();
         }
         if (out != null) {
            out.close();
         }
      }



        s.stop();
        System.out.println("elapsed time in seconds: " + s.getElapsedTimeSecs());
    }
}

[Elapsed Time for Byte Stream Reader][1]

**Character Stream Reader Elapsed Time for 23.7 MB is 3 secs**

import java.io.*;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.Scanner;

class ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream
{

    private long startTime = 0;
    private long stopTime = 0;
    private boolean running = false;


    public void start() 
    {
        this.startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        this.running = true;
    }


    public void stop() 
    {
        this.stopTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
        this.running = false;
    }



    public long getElapsedTime() 
    {
        long elapsed;
        if (running) {
             elapsed = (System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime);
        }
        else {
            elapsed = (stopTime - startTime);
        }
        return elapsed;
    }



    public long getElapsedTimeSecs()                 
    {
        long elapsed;
        if (running) 
        {
            elapsed = ((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) / 1000);
        }
        else
        {
            elapsed = ((stopTime - startTime) / 1000);
        }
        return elapsed;
    }





    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException
    {
        ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream  s = new ElaspedTimetoCopyAFileUsingCharacterStream();
        s.start();

         FileReader in = null;                // CharacterStream Reader
      FileWriter out = null;

      try {
         in = new FileReader("vowels.txt");    // 23.7 MB
         out = new FileWriter("output.txt");

         int c;
         while ((c = in.read()) != -1) {
            out.write(c);
         }
      }finally {
         if (in != null) {
            in.close();
         }
         if (out != null) {
            out.close();
         }
      }

              s.stop();
        System.out.println("elapsed time in seconds: " + s.getElapsedTimeSecs());
    }
}


[Elapsed Time for Character Stream Reader][2]


  [1]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/hYo8y.png
  [2]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/xPjCK.png