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  3. Time Calculator
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Time Calculator

Add and subtract durations with the sign kept, so one hour minus two hours is minus one hour. Also moves a time of day forward or back and says how many midnights it crossed.

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A worked calculation

One hour minus two hours. Two operations, Subtract and Difference, are on the page. What do they print?

Input

01:00:00  subtract  02:00:00
What Time Calculator produces

Result

Subtract:   -01:00:00
Difference:  01:00:00

They are different questions and they now have different answers. The shipped version of this tool split the total with Math.abs before formatting it, so both printed 01:00:00 and there was no way to tell the two operations apart from their output for any pair of inputs at all. Subtraction keeps its sign here, and when the result is negative the page says which operation you probably wanted. Every field is read as a whole number too, so "1.5" hours is refused by name rather than truncated to 1 the way parseInt does it, and 90 minutes carries into an hour and a half.

Durations, with the sign kept

Add and subtract lengths of time. One hour minus two hours is minus one hour, and the answer says so, which is the thing most time calculators get wrong by taking an absolute value before printing.

How it works

A duration can be negative and a time of day cannot, and a tool that runs both through the same code has to lose something. Here they are two modes.

**The sign is part of the answer.** The shipped version of this tool split the total with `Math.abs` before formatting it, so one hour minus two hours printed as 01:00:00, and Subtract and Difference produced the identical string for every pair of inputs there is. There was no way to tell the two operations apart from their output. Subtract keeps the sign now; Difference is how far apart two lengths are and is never negative; and when the result is negative the page says which one you probably wanted.

**Every field is read as a whole number, and a value it cannot read is refused by name.** `parseInt` truncates: 1.5 hours becomes 1, losing half an hour silently, and 1e3 becomes 1. Neither happens. A value past its usual range still carries, because 90 minutes is an hour and a half and is a perfectly ordinary thing to type; only something that is not a whole number is refused, with a message naming it.

**The answer follows the inputs.** There is no Calculate button, because a button leaves a stale answer on the screen the moment you change a field, and that is the state a screenshot gets taken in.

**A time of day is a separate mode.** It reads both the 24 hour and the 12 hour form, where 12:00 AM is midnight and 12:00 PM is noon, which is the pair every hand-rolled parser gets backwards. Moving a clock forward or back reports how many midnights it crossed. It says plainly that this is arithmetic on a clock face and not an instant in a time zone, so it makes no claim about a daylight saving change; that needs a date and a zone, which the unix timestamp converter has.

Alongside the result: the same length written in weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds with the exact ones marked, the total in seconds, and the note that a day here is 86,400 seconds, which is the right answer for a duration and the wrong one for a calendar day.

Examples

  • One hour minus two hours

    Subtract gives -01:00:00. Difference gives 01:00:00. Those are different answers to different questions, and a calculator that prints 01:00:00 for both has thrown away the sign.

  • 90 minutes

    Enter 0 hours and 90 minutes. It carries to 01:30:00, and the unit panel shows 1.5000 hours marked as exact.

  • 11:30 PM plus 3 hours 45 minutes

    In Time of day mode this gives 03:15:00, and the page says it crossed one midnight, so it is the next day.

How to use

  1. 1Choose Add, Subtract or Difference
  2. 2Type the two lengths as hours, minutes and seconds
  3. 3Read the answer, which updates as you type
  4. 4Switch to Time of day to move a clock reading forward or back instead

Key features

  • Subtraction keeps its sign, so a negative result is shown as one
  • Difference and Subtract are genuinely different operations
  • Fields read as whole numbers, with anything else refused by name rather than truncated
  • Values past their range carry, so 90 minutes is an hour and a half
  • The answer follows the inputs with no button to leave it stale
  • The same length in weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds, with the exact ones marked
  • A separate time of day mode, with the 12 hour form read correctly at midnight and noon
  • A clock shift that reports how many midnights it crossed

Tips & best practices

  • Use Subtract when the order matters and Difference when it does not. If Subtract gives you a negative answer, that is information, not an error.
  • Type 90 into minutes rather than converting by hand; it carries into an hour and a half.
  • For dates rather than durations, use the date and age calculator: a calendar day is not always 86,400 seconds.

When this is useful

  • Adding up timesheet entries

    With the total in seconds and in decimal hours for a payroll form.

  • Working out how far apart two durations are

    Difference, which is never negative, sitting next to Subtract, which is.

  • Finding what time something finishes

    Time of day mode, which says whether it runs past midnight.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my answer negative?

Because Time 2 is longer than Time 1 and you asked for Subtract, which keeps the order. If you want how far apart they are, choose Difference. A calculator that shows a positive number for both has taken an absolute value and told you nothing about which is which.

Can I enter 90 minutes?

Yes. Values past their usual range carry, so 90 minutes becomes an hour and a half. What is refused is a value that is not a whole number, because reading 1.5 as 1 loses half an hour without saying anything.

Does this handle daylight saving?

No, and it says so. This is arithmetic on durations and on a clock face. A clock change is a property of a date in a particular zone, so it needs both; the unix timestamp converter and the date and age calculator handle that side.

Is 12:00 AM midnight or noon?

Midnight. 12:00 PM is noon. That pair is the one hand-rolled twelve hour parsers usually get backwards, and it is tested here.

Why is there no Calculate button?

Because the answer is a pure function of the inputs, so it can just follow them. A button means that changing a field leaves the previous answer on the screen, which is exactly when somebody reads the wrong number.

Related tools and how they differ

  • Date & Age Calculator: For calendar dates, where a day is not always 86,400 seconds.
  • Unix Timestamp Converter: For an instant in a real time zone, with the offset and the abbreviation.

Private by design

Every calculation runs locally in your browser. Your numbers and expressions are not transmitted or stored.