Snippet: Converting Seconds to Readable Time (PHP & JS)

3Jun/097

Snippet: Converting Seconds to Readable Time (PHP & JS)

Sometimes, you might need to convert an integer representing seconds into a format that is easier to read. These functions can be used to turn a number of seconds into a simple format of HH:MM:SS, with leading zeros (ex. 15272 = 04:14:32). This can be used for countdown scripts, which is why I also include both a PHP and a JavaScript version.

function formatTime($secs) {
   $times = array(3600, 60, 1);
   $time = '';
   $tmp = '';
   for($i = 0; $i < 3; $i++) {
      $tmp = floor($secs / $times[$i]);
      if($tmp < 1) {
         $tmp = '00';
      }
      elseif($tmp < 10) {
         $tmp = '0' . $tmp;
      }
      $time .= $tmp;
      if($i < 2) {
         $time .= ':';
      }
      $secs = $secs % $times[$i];
   }
   return $time;
}

function formatTime(secs){
   var times = new Array(3600, 60, 1);
   var time = '';
   var tmp;
   for(var i = 0; i < times.length; i++){
      tmp = Math.floor(secs / times[i]);
      if(tmp < 1){
         tmp = '00';
      }
      else if(tmp < 10){
         tmp = '0' + tmp;
      }
      time += tmp;
      if(i < 2){
         time += ':';
      }
      secs = secs % times[i];
   }
   return time;
}

Usage

Both functions are identical in functionality: they accept seconds as an integer and return the formatted time as a string. You can easily extend it to return days, weeks, etc. just by adding those units in seconds to the array on the first line.

Posted by Steve

Tagged as: JavaScript, PHP, snippet, time, timer Leave a comment

Comments (7) Trackbacks (1) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

Densus88
October 10th, 2009 - 19:27

How to convert seconds to YearMonthDateHourMinuteSecond?

( REPLY )
Jim Trowbridge
November 4th, 2009 - 12:24

WOW! I couldn’t find this anywhere, thank you… saved a large headache of figuring out the math myself…. I feel like PHP should have a built in function for this (javascript too..) like sectoamt() would be a good name for it

I’m using it to compare two times and return the difference (like a million times).

Thanks again.

( REPLY )

Burak
December 18th, 2009 - 11:42

This works too:

function formatTime($secs) {
	return str_pad(floor($secs/3600),2,"0",STR_PAD_LEFT).":".
		str_pad(floor(($secs%3600)/60),2,"0",STR_PAD_LEFT).":".
		str_pad($secs%60,2,"0",STR_PAD_LEFT);
}

( REPLY )

Steve
December 18th, 2009 - 12:06

Good one! Mind if I include that in the post?

( REPLY )

Florin Duban
October 18th, 2010 - 07:00

date(‘H:i:s’, $secs) when you have less then 25 hours

I am searching for something already available in PHP too

( REPLY )
Alix Axel
October 18th, 2011 - 12:06

Even shorter:

function formatTime($secs) {
return sprintf(‘%02u:%02u:%02u’, floor($secs/3600), floor($secs%3600/60), $secs%60);
}

Please (re)format at will.

( REPLY )
Alix Axel
October 18th, 2011 - 12:09

Even shorter (sorry for repost):

sprintf(‘%02u:%02u:%02u’, $secs/3600, $secs%3600/60, $secs%60);

( REPLY )