time input help

[rajsharma1]

hi guys,

I am making a program in which I have to enter start date and time and stop date and time in format like 01:05:07 15:26:57

i don't know how to get that value from the user in hh:mm:ss format and calculate the difference between different inputs. i have no clue of that. could you guys give me some tips on that?

[sicarie]

I'd recommend (with whatever time library you are using) deciding on a format, and then prompting the user for that exact format. Then you can either use a regex or the string parsing functions to pull out the time (using the ':' as a delimiter, for example). If you are using a time library, you can probably set a "pattern" or "format" for the time and then just pass it the string the user inputs.

Then you can just throw out anything that does not fit that - prompt the user for the time again until it is correct. (I would use a while loop. Also consider am/pm and the 24-hour clock when doing this ;)

Please enter the time in "hh:mm:ss" format:
10 14:00
Please enter the time in "hh:mm:ss" format:
10-14-00
Please enter the time in "hh:mm:ss" format:
10:14:00
....whatever you want to do here...