这在Java 9中更容易:

    Duration elapsedTime = Duration.ofMillis(millisDiff );
    String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
            "%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
            elapsedTime.toHours(),
            elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
            elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

这将生成像0小时39分9秒这样的字符串。

如果你想在格式化前舍入整秒:

    elapsedTime = elapsedTime.plusMillis(500).truncatedTo(ChronoUnit.SECONDS);

如果小时数为0，则省略:

    long hours = elapsedTime.toHours();
    String humanReadableElapsedTime;
    if (hours == 0) {
        humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
                "%d mins, %d seconds",
                elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
                elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

    } else {
        humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
                "%d hours, %d mins, %d seconds",
                hours,
                elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
                elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());
    }

现在我们有39分9秒。

要打印前导0的分钟和秒，使它们始终是两个数字，只需在相关的格式说明符中插入02，如下所示:

    String humanReadableElapsedTime = String.format(
            "%d hours, %02d mins, %02d seconds",
            elapsedTime.toHours(),
            elapsedTime.toMinutesPart(),
            elapsedTime.toSecondsPart());

现在我们有0小时39分09秒。

如果你知道时间差将小于一个小时，那么你可以使用以下代码:

    Calendar c1 = Calendar.getInstance();
    Calendar c2 = Calendar.getInstance();

    c2.add(Calendar.MINUTE, 51);

    long diff = c2.getTimeInMillis() - c1.getTimeInMillis();

    c2.set(Calendar.MINUTE, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.HOUR, 0);
    c2.set(Calendar.SECOND, 0);

    DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("mm:ss");
    long diff1 = c2.getTimeInMillis() + diff;
    System.out.println(df.format(new Date(diff1)));

结果是:51:00

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。

使用java . util . concurrent。TimeUnit，使用这个简单的方法:

private static long timeDiff(Date date, Date date2, TimeUnit unit) {
    long milliDiff=date2.getTime()-date.getTime();
    long unitDiff = unit.convert(milliDiff, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
    return unitDiff; 
}

例如:

SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss");  
Date firstDate = sdf.parse("06/24/2017 04:30:00");
Date secondDate = sdf.parse("07/24/2017 05:00:15");
Date thirdDate = sdf.parse("06/24/2017 06:00:15");

System.out.println("days difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,secondDate,TimeUnit.DAYS));
System.out.println("hours difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.HOURS));
System.out.println("minutes difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.MINUTES));
System.out.println("seconds difference: "+timeDiff(firstDate,thirdDate,TimeUnit.SECONDS));

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);
   }

手工划分，或者使用SimpleDateFormat API。

long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
// do your work...
long elapsed = System.currentTimeMillis() - start;
DateFormat df = new SimpleDateFormat("HH 'hours', mm 'mins,' ss 'seconds'");
df.setTimeZone(TimeZone.getTimeZone("GMT+0"));
System.out.println(df.format(new Date(elapsed)));

Edit by Bombe:评论中显示，这种方法只适用于较短的持续时间(即少于一天)。