回顾@brent-nash的贡献，我们可以使用模函数代替减法并使用String。结果字符串的格式方法:

  /**
   * Convert a millisecond duration to a string format
   * 
   * @param millis A duration to convert to a string form
   * @return A string of the form "X Days Y Hours Z Minutes A Seconds B Milliseconds".
   */
   public static String getDurationBreakdown(long millis) {
       if (millis < 0) {
          throw new IllegalArgumentException("Duration must be greater than zero!");
       }

       long days = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(millis);
       long hours = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(millis) % 24;
       long minutes = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis) % 60;
       long seconds = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) % 60;
       long milliseconds = millis % 1000;

       return String.format("%d Days %d Hours %d Minutes %d Seconds %d Milliseconds",
                            days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds);
   }

嗯……一秒是多少毫秒?一分钟后呢?除法没那么难。

int seconds = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) % 60);
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / 1000) / 60);

这样持续几小时、几天、几周、几个月、一年、几十年，等等。

    long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
    // do your work...
    long endTime=System.currentTimeMillis();
    long diff=endTime-startTime;       
    long hours=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(diff);
    diff=diff-(hours*60*60*1000);
    long min=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(diff);
    diff=diff-(min*60*1000);
    long seconds=TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(diff);
    //hour, min and seconds variables contains the time elapsed on your work

适用于API 9以下的Android

(String.format("%d hr %d min, %d sec", millis/(1000*60*60), (millis%(1000*60*60))/(1000*60), ((millis%(1000*60*60))%(1000*60))/1000)) 

使用java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit类:

String.format("%d min, %d sec", 
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) - 
    TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);

注意:TimeUnit是Java 1.5规范的一部分，但是toMinutes是在Java 1.6中添加的。

为0-9的值添加前导零，只需执行以下操作:

String.format("%02d min, %02d sec", 
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis),
    TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(millis) - 
    TimeUnit.MINUTES.toSeconds(TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(millis))
);

如果TimeUnit或toMinutes不受支持(例如在API版本9之前的Android上)，使用以下公式:

int seconds = (int) (milliseconds / 1000) % 60 ;
int minutes = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60)) % 60);
int hours   = (int) ((milliseconds / (1000*60*60)) % 24);
//etc...

对于一小时以内的小时间，我更喜欢:

long millis = ...

System.out.printf("%1$TM:%1$TS", millis);
// or
String str = String.format("%1$TM:%1$TS", millis);

对于较长的间隔:

private static final long HOUR = TimeUnit.HOURS.toMillis(1);
...
if (millis < HOUR) {
    System.out.printf("%1$TM:%1$TS%n", millis);
} else {
    System.out.printf("%d:%2$TM:%2$TS%n", millis / HOUR, millis % HOUR);
}