How to best display number of hours

The name of the pictureThe name of the pictureThe name of the pictureClash Royale CLAN TAG#URR8PPP





.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;







up vote
6
down vote

favorite












What would be a better solution when displaying the number of hours required for some task? For example: 1 hours and 30 minutes, in a short way.




  • 1,5h - as 1 and half hour


  • 1,3h - as 1 hour and 30 minutes

Why I listed those two is because I'd prefer to keep it compact and not take too much space.










share|improve this question









New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 56




    Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
    – MonkeyZeus
    yesterday






  • 20




    I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
    – Polygnome
    yesterday






  • 24




    In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
    – xehpuk
    yesterday






  • 5




    Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
    – kapex
    yesterday






  • 8




    Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
    – David Richerby
    yesterday
















up vote
6
down vote

favorite












What would be a better solution when displaying the number of hours required for some task? For example: 1 hours and 30 minutes, in a short way.




  • 1,5h - as 1 and half hour


  • 1,3h - as 1 hour and 30 minutes

Why I listed those two is because I'd prefer to keep it compact and not take too much space.










share|improve this question









New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 56




    Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
    – MonkeyZeus
    yesterday






  • 20




    I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
    – Polygnome
    yesterday






  • 24




    In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
    – xehpuk
    yesterday






  • 5




    Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
    – kapex
    yesterday






  • 8




    Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
    – David Richerby
    yesterday












up vote
6
down vote

favorite









up vote
6
down vote

favorite











What would be a better solution when displaying the number of hours required for some task? For example: 1 hours and 30 minutes, in a short way.




  • 1,5h - as 1 and half hour


  • 1,3h - as 1 hour and 30 minutes

Why I listed those two is because I'd prefer to keep it compact and not take too much space.










share|improve this question









New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











What would be a better solution when displaying the number of hours required for some task? For example: 1 hours and 30 minutes, in a short way.




  • 1,5h - as 1 and half hour


  • 1,3h - as 1 hour and 30 minutes

Why I listed those two is because I'd prefer to keep it compact and not take too much space.







time data-display






share|improve this question









New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 18 hours ago









Agi Hammerthief

257110




257110






New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.









asked yesterday









aMJay

13317




13317




New contributor




aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.





New contributor





aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.






aMJay is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.







  • 56




    Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
    – MonkeyZeus
    yesterday






  • 20




    I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
    – Polygnome
    yesterday






  • 24




    In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
    – xehpuk
    yesterday






  • 5




    Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
    – kapex
    yesterday






  • 8




    Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
    – David Richerby
    yesterday












  • 56




    Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
    – MonkeyZeus
    yesterday






  • 20




    I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
    – Polygnome
    yesterday






  • 24




    In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
    – xehpuk
    yesterday






  • 5




    Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
    – kapex
    yesterday






  • 8




    Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
    – David Richerby
    yesterday







56




56




Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
– MonkeyZeus
yesterday




Definitely not 1,3h. I almost suffered an aneurysm trying to make heads or tails of that because decimals do not reset at 1,59
– MonkeyZeus
yesterday




20




20




I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
– Polygnome
yesterday




I have never seen 1,3h used for 1:30, its would be confusing as hell. 1,5h is 1:30, or just stick to 1:30 notation, or add suffixes e.g. 1h 30m.
– Polygnome
yesterday




24




24




In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
– xehpuk
yesterday




In which locale does "1,3h" mean 1 hour and 30 minutes?
– xehpuk
yesterday




5




5




Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
– kapex
yesterday




Decimal times like 1,3h (1h18m) are used in German Industrieminuten ("industrial minutes"), mostly for time keeping. It was supposedly easier to handle in early timekeeping system (before computers were used) but I don't see any advantage today. It is confusing to calculate. You have to multiply the decimals by a factor of 6 to get real minutes. Also the notation is also not always that compact. 1h15 is 1,25 - so you don't save much space.
– kapex
yesterday




8




8




Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
– David Richerby
yesterday




Note that, in English, the decimal separator is the period, not the comma.
– David Richerby
yesterday










4 Answers
4






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
42
down vote



accepted










Jira has a great and clear way of doing this when entering time estimates in the task estimate field, simply using 1 letter after the weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).



enter image description here



By not allowing a user to enter decimals, visualizing and reading the data is much easier.



For example, if a user adds 1,50h would they mean 1 hour and 50 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes? Jira solves this cleverly by chopping it up in the various units directly.



Examples of what can be entered:



  • 1w 4d 1h 30m

  • 4d 1h 30m

  • 1h 30m

  • 1h

  • 30m


You can specify a time unit after a time value 'X', such as Xw, Xd, Xh
or Xm, to represent weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m),
respectively.




From Jiras logging work and time tracking guides



This may differ with each organisation depending on how they set it but its a good, clear example of this.






share|improve this answer


















  • 6




    I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
    – TripeHound
    yesterday






  • 3




    Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
    – Jonathan
    16 hours ago

















up vote
11
down vote













Standard format for time (and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration) is set by ISO 8601.

Using extended format (hh:mm[:ss]) fits best (note :!), clearly conveying time nature of the value.



From my experience, even though it says:




Decimal fractions may be added to any of the three time elements. However, a fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation..




using a fraction may lead to ambiguous interpretation.



HH:mm gives you shortest (only 5 charachters in width) and cleanest widely recognizable format.






share|improve this answer
















  • 2




    With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
    – Chris H
    15 hours ago






  • 2




    It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    14 hours ago










  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago










  • @Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    8 hours ago











  • And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago

















up vote
1
down vote













I don't have enough reputation to comment so this answer is intended to add additional context to Astrogator's (Though I do think that Owen Hughes has provided the best answer from a UI perspective).



Astrogator's answer is misleading in that it conflates "time" (the absolute value of the time of day in a given time zone) with "duration" (the amount of time that something may take to complete)



ISO 8601 defines the following standard format for a time duration:




PnYnMnDTnHnMnS




where:



  • P denotes that this is a duration (period) of time

  • n is the amount of that size interval that is included

  • Y/M/D designate Years, Months and Days respectively (also W for Week)

  • T separates the day and larger units from sub-day units (time)

  • H/M/S designate Hours, Minutes and Seconds respectively

  • Any unit with a zero value can be excluded (eg. P1D can be read as P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S) so long as at least one is included (eg. P is not valid for a zero-length period but P0S is)

In addition T must be included if the days and lager are zero in order to avoid ambiguity, this means that P1M describes 1 Month while PT1M describes 1 minute. Decimals are also accepted as P1.5H = P1H30M. It is valid as well to include a value greater than the size of the next unit, with the caution that P1DT1H and P25H may not be the same where the interval falls over a change in daylight-savings time - a duration of P1D takes you to the same time the following day but a duration of P24D would have an extra hour consumed or an hour skipped leaving you an hour different.



The end result of all this is that the ISO standard description of a 1 hour 30 minute duration would be P1H30M. However, whilst this format is great if you are familiar with the standard, it is obtuse to unfamiliar users and I believe as a result that the Jira approach recommended by Owen Hughes is the best approach for your use-case.






share|improve this answer




















  • I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago

















up vote
-1
down vote













1:30 hrs



I most commonly see time with colon characters, for example: "1:30 hrs" to mean 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think this is even the format that my car sat nav displays.






share|improve this answer




















  • Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
    – doppelgreener
    8 hours ago










  • @doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
    – Hoki
    6 hours ago











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function()
var channelOptions =
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "102"
;
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function()
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled)
StackExchange.using("snippets", function()
createEditor();
);

else
createEditor();

);

function createEditor()
StackExchange.prepareEditor(
heartbeatType: 'answer',
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader:
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
,
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
);



);






aMJay is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









 

draft saved


draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fux.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f122135%2fhow-to-best-display-number-of-hours%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest






























4 Answers
4






active

oldest

votes








4 Answers
4






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes








up vote
42
down vote



accepted










Jira has a great and clear way of doing this when entering time estimates in the task estimate field, simply using 1 letter after the weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).



enter image description here



By not allowing a user to enter decimals, visualizing and reading the data is much easier.



For example, if a user adds 1,50h would they mean 1 hour and 50 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes? Jira solves this cleverly by chopping it up in the various units directly.



Examples of what can be entered:



  • 1w 4d 1h 30m

  • 4d 1h 30m

  • 1h 30m

  • 1h

  • 30m


You can specify a time unit after a time value 'X', such as Xw, Xd, Xh
or Xm, to represent weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m),
respectively.




From Jiras logging work and time tracking guides



This may differ with each organisation depending on how they set it but its a good, clear example of this.






share|improve this answer


















  • 6




    I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
    – TripeHound
    yesterday






  • 3




    Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
    – Jonathan
    16 hours ago














up vote
42
down vote



accepted










Jira has a great and clear way of doing this when entering time estimates in the task estimate field, simply using 1 letter after the weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).



enter image description here



By not allowing a user to enter decimals, visualizing and reading the data is much easier.



For example, if a user adds 1,50h would they mean 1 hour and 50 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes? Jira solves this cleverly by chopping it up in the various units directly.



Examples of what can be entered:



  • 1w 4d 1h 30m

  • 4d 1h 30m

  • 1h 30m

  • 1h

  • 30m


You can specify a time unit after a time value 'X', such as Xw, Xd, Xh
or Xm, to represent weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m),
respectively.




From Jiras logging work and time tracking guides



This may differ with each organisation depending on how they set it but its a good, clear example of this.






share|improve this answer


















  • 6




    I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
    – TripeHound
    yesterday






  • 3




    Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
    – Jonathan
    16 hours ago












up vote
42
down vote



accepted







up vote
42
down vote



accepted






Jira has a great and clear way of doing this when entering time estimates in the task estimate field, simply using 1 letter after the weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).



enter image description here



By not allowing a user to enter decimals, visualizing and reading the data is much easier.



For example, if a user adds 1,50h would they mean 1 hour and 50 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes? Jira solves this cleverly by chopping it up in the various units directly.



Examples of what can be entered:



  • 1w 4d 1h 30m

  • 4d 1h 30m

  • 1h 30m

  • 1h

  • 30m


You can specify a time unit after a time value 'X', such as Xw, Xd, Xh
or Xm, to represent weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m),
respectively.




From Jiras logging work and time tracking guides



This may differ with each organisation depending on how they set it but its a good, clear example of this.






share|improve this answer














Jira has a great and clear way of doing this when entering time estimates in the task estimate field, simply using 1 letter after the weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m).



enter image description here



By not allowing a user to enter decimals, visualizing and reading the data is much easier.



For example, if a user adds 1,50h would they mean 1 hour and 50 minutes or 1 hour and 30 minutes? Jira solves this cleverly by chopping it up in the various units directly.



Examples of what can be entered:



  • 1w 4d 1h 30m

  • 4d 1h 30m

  • 1h 30m

  • 1h

  • 30m


You can specify a time unit after a time value 'X', such as Xw, Xd, Xh
or Xm, to represent weeks (w), days (d), hours (h) and minutes (m),
respectively.




From Jiras logging work and time tracking guides



This may differ with each organisation depending on how they set it but its a good, clear example of this.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited yesterday









Matthijs Mali

390112




390112










answered yesterday









Owen Hughes

2,102919




2,102919







  • 6




    I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
    – TripeHound
    yesterday






  • 3




    Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
    – Jonathan
    16 hours ago












  • 6




    I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
    – TripeHound
    yesterday






  • 3




    Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
    – Jonathan
    16 hours ago







6




6




I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
– TripeHound
yesterday




I believe if you do enter 1.5h (or with a comma, depending on locale) it does treat that as one-and-a-half hours, but (IIRC) converts it immediately to 1h 30m to remove any ambiguity (might vary by version, but I seem to remember being able to do this).
– TripeHound
yesterday




3




3




Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
– Jonathan
16 hours ago




Beware that such time units don't translate well, especially to non-latin-based languages.
– Jonathan
16 hours ago












up vote
11
down vote













Standard format for time (and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration) is set by ISO 8601.

Using extended format (hh:mm[:ss]) fits best (note :!), clearly conveying time nature of the value.



From my experience, even though it says:




Decimal fractions may be added to any of the three time elements. However, a fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation..




using a fraction may lead to ambiguous interpretation.



HH:mm gives you shortest (only 5 charachters in width) and cleanest widely recognizable format.






share|improve this answer
















  • 2




    With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
    – Chris H
    15 hours ago






  • 2




    It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    14 hours ago










  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago










  • @Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    8 hours ago











  • And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago














up vote
11
down vote













Standard format for time (and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration) is set by ISO 8601.

Using extended format (hh:mm[:ss]) fits best (note :!), clearly conveying time nature of the value.



From my experience, even though it says:




Decimal fractions may be added to any of the three time elements. However, a fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation..




using a fraction may lead to ambiguous interpretation.



HH:mm gives you shortest (only 5 charachters in width) and cleanest widely recognizable format.






share|improve this answer
















  • 2




    With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
    – Chris H
    15 hours ago






  • 2




    It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    14 hours ago










  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago










  • @Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    8 hours ago











  • And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago












up vote
11
down vote










up vote
11
down vote









Standard format for time (and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration) is set by ISO 8601.

Using extended format (hh:mm[:ss]) fits best (note :!), clearly conveying time nature of the value.



From my experience, even though it says:




Decimal fractions may be added to any of the three time elements. However, a fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation..




using a fraction may lead to ambiguous interpretation.



HH:mm gives you shortest (only 5 charachters in width) and cleanest widely recognizable format.






share|improve this answer












Standard format for time (and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration) is set by ISO 8601.

Using extended format (hh:mm[:ss]) fits best (note :!), clearly conveying time nature of the value.



From my experience, even though it says:




Decimal fractions may be added to any of the three time elements. However, a fraction may only be added to the lowest order time element in the representation..




using a fraction may lead to ambiguous interpretation.



HH:mm gives you shortest (only 5 charachters in width) and cleanest widely recognizable format.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered yesterday









Astrogator

23913




23913







  • 2




    With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
    – Chris H
    15 hours ago






  • 2




    It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    14 hours ago










  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago










  • @Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    8 hours ago











  • And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago












  • 2




    With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
    – Chris H
    15 hours ago






  • 2




    It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    14 hours ago










  • @LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago










  • @Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    8 hours ago











  • And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago







2




2




With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
– Chris H
15 hours ago




With respect to the last paragraph, this is also the shortest unambiguous way if you want to handle all common intervals less than 24h. 10.25 is the same number of characters as 10:15, but 10.25 could also be read as 10:25. Unicode supports fractions equivalent to 30, 20, 15, 12, 10 and 6 minute intervals, but "1⅖ hours" isn't all that helpful, and you can't do 5 minutes, only 6: "⅒ hour", so this approach isn't much use
– Chris H
15 hours ago




2




2




It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
– Lightness Races in Orbit
14 hours ago




It's not cleanest and it's not unambiguous because HH:mm is often indistinguishable from mm:ss. That's why we prefer letter suffixes when i18n isn't a concern. When it is, you'll want some different scheme entirely.
– Lightness Races in Orbit
14 hours ago












@LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
– Astrogator
8 hours ago




@LightnessRacesinOrbit, yes but OP did not mention seconds. If they are needed HH:mm:ss should be used, as i said in my 1st paragraph. Also, users should be aware of the context (as much as the UI :)).
– Astrogator
8 hours ago












@Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
– Lightness Races in Orbit
8 hours ago





@Astrogator Sorry I think you missed my point, which is that the HH:mm syntax does not provide that context and is thus ambiguous.
– Lightness Races in Orbit
8 hours ago













And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
– Astrogator
8 hours ago




And i believe you missed mine: this context is external to format.
– Astrogator
8 hours ago










up vote
1
down vote













I don't have enough reputation to comment so this answer is intended to add additional context to Astrogator's (Though I do think that Owen Hughes has provided the best answer from a UI perspective).



Astrogator's answer is misleading in that it conflates "time" (the absolute value of the time of day in a given time zone) with "duration" (the amount of time that something may take to complete)



ISO 8601 defines the following standard format for a time duration:




PnYnMnDTnHnMnS




where:



  • P denotes that this is a duration (period) of time

  • n is the amount of that size interval that is included

  • Y/M/D designate Years, Months and Days respectively (also W for Week)

  • T separates the day and larger units from sub-day units (time)

  • H/M/S designate Hours, Minutes and Seconds respectively

  • Any unit with a zero value can be excluded (eg. P1D can be read as P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S) so long as at least one is included (eg. P is not valid for a zero-length period but P0S is)

In addition T must be included if the days and lager are zero in order to avoid ambiguity, this means that P1M describes 1 Month while PT1M describes 1 minute. Decimals are also accepted as P1.5H = P1H30M. It is valid as well to include a value greater than the size of the next unit, with the caution that P1DT1H and P25H may not be the same where the interval falls over a change in daylight-savings time - a duration of P1D takes you to the same time the following day but a duration of P24D would have an extra hour consumed or an hour skipped leaving you an hour different.



The end result of all this is that the ISO standard description of a 1 hour 30 minute duration would be P1H30M. However, whilst this format is great if you are familiar with the standard, it is obtuse to unfamiliar users and I believe as a result that the Jira approach recommended by Owen Hughes is the best approach for your use-case.






share|improve this answer




















  • I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago














up vote
1
down vote













I don't have enough reputation to comment so this answer is intended to add additional context to Astrogator's (Though I do think that Owen Hughes has provided the best answer from a UI perspective).



Astrogator's answer is misleading in that it conflates "time" (the absolute value of the time of day in a given time zone) with "duration" (the amount of time that something may take to complete)



ISO 8601 defines the following standard format for a time duration:




PnYnMnDTnHnMnS




where:



  • P denotes that this is a duration (period) of time

  • n is the amount of that size interval that is included

  • Y/M/D designate Years, Months and Days respectively (also W for Week)

  • T separates the day and larger units from sub-day units (time)

  • H/M/S designate Hours, Minutes and Seconds respectively

  • Any unit with a zero value can be excluded (eg. P1D can be read as P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S) so long as at least one is included (eg. P is not valid for a zero-length period but P0S is)

In addition T must be included if the days and lager are zero in order to avoid ambiguity, this means that P1M describes 1 Month while PT1M describes 1 minute. Decimals are also accepted as P1.5H = P1H30M. It is valid as well to include a value greater than the size of the next unit, with the caution that P1DT1H and P25H may not be the same where the interval falls over a change in daylight-savings time - a duration of P1D takes you to the same time the following day but a duration of P24D would have an extra hour consumed or an hour skipped leaving you an hour different.



The end result of all this is that the ISO standard description of a 1 hour 30 minute duration would be P1H30M. However, whilst this format is great if you are familiar with the standard, it is obtuse to unfamiliar users and I believe as a result that the Jira approach recommended by Owen Hughes is the best approach for your use-case.






share|improve this answer




















  • I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago












up vote
1
down vote










up vote
1
down vote









I don't have enough reputation to comment so this answer is intended to add additional context to Astrogator's (Though I do think that Owen Hughes has provided the best answer from a UI perspective).



Astrogator's answer is misleading in that it conflates "time" (the absolute value of the time of day in a given time zone) with "duration" (the amount of time that something may take to complete)



ISO 8601 defines the following standard format for a time duration:




PnYnMnDTnHnMnS




where:



  • P denotes that this is a duration (period) of time

  • n is the amount of that size interval that is included

  • Y/M/D designate Years, Months and Days respectively (also W for Week)

  • T separates the day and larger units from sub-day units (time)

  • H/M/S designate Hours, Minutes and Seconds respectively

  • Any unit with a zero value can be excluded (eg. P1D can be read as P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S) so long as at least one is included (eg. P is not valid for a zero-length period but P0S is)

In addition T must be included if the days and lager are zero in order to avoid ambiguity, this means that P1M describes 1 Month while PT1M describes 1 minute. Decimals are also accepted as P1.5H = P1H30M. It is valid as well to include a value greater than the size of the next unit, with the caution that P1DT1H and P25H may not be the same where the interval falls over a change in daylight-savings time - a duration of P1D takes you to the same time the following day but a duration of P24D would have an extra hour consumed or an hour skipped leaving you an hour different.



The end result of all this is that the ISO standard description of a 1 hour 30 minute duration would be P1H30M. However, whilst this format is great if you are familiar with the standard, it is obtuse to unfamiliar users and I believe as a result that the Jira approach recommended by Owen Hughes is the best approach for your use-case.






share|improve this answer












I don't have enough reputation to comment so this answer is intended to add additional context to Astrogator's (Though I do think that Owen Hughes has provided the best answer from a UI perspective).



Astrogator's answer is misleading in that it conflates "time" (the absolute value of the time of day in a given time zone) with "duration" (the amount of time that something may take to complete)



ISO 8601 defines the following standard format for a time duration:




PnYnMnDTnHnMnS




where:



  • P denotes that this is a duration (period) of time

  • n is the amount of that size interval that is included

  • Y/M/D designate Years, Months and Days respectively (also W for Week)

  • T separates the day and larger units from sub-day units (time)

  • H/M/S designate Hours, Minutes and Seconds respectively

  • Any unit with a zero value can be excluded (eg. P1D can be read as P0Y0M1DT0H0M0S) so long as at least one is included (eg. P is not valid for a zero-length period but P0S is)

In addition T must be included if the days and lager are zero in order to avoid ambiguity, this means that P1M describes 1 Month while PT1M describes 1 minute. Decimals are also accepted as P1.5H = P1H30M. It is valid as well to include a value greater than the size of the next unit, with the caution that P1DT1H and P25H may not be the same where the interval falls over a change in daylight-savings time - a duration of P1D takes you to the same time the following day but a duration of P24D would have an extra hour consumed or an hour skipped leaving you an hour different.



The end result of all this is that the ISO standard description of a 1 hour 30 minute duration would be P1H30M. However, whilst this format is great if you are familiar with the standard, it is obtuse to unfamiliar users and I believe as a result that the Jira approach recommended by Owen Hughes is the best approach for your use-case.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 13 hours ago









lakevna

412




412











  • I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago
















  • I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
    – Astrogator
    8 hours ago















I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
– Astrogator
8 hours ago




I disagree with "conflating time and duration"; i clearly said and time intervals less than 24 hours in duration. Most users will be lost in all the prefixes and suffixes of the scientific Duration format (have you ever seen a countdown timer in this format?). My answer is still shortest (- what's been asked for!), while being explicit enough (with possible addition of :ss based on context) :))
– Astrogator
8 hours ago










up vote
-1
down vote













1:30 hrs



I most commonly see time with colon characters, for example: "1:30 hrs" to mean 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think this is even the format that my car sat nav displays.






share|improve this answer




















  • Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
    – doppelgreener
    8 hours ago










  • @doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
    – Hoki
    6 hours ago















up vote
-1
down vote













1:30 hrs



I most commonly see time with colon characters, for example: "1:30 hrs" to mean 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think this is even the format that my car sat nav displays.






share|improve this answer




















  • Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
    – doppelgreener
    8 hours ago










  • @doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
    – Hoki
    6 hours ago













up vote
-1
down vote










up vote
-1
down vote









1:30 hrs



I most commonly see time with colon characters, for example: "1:30 hrs" to mean 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think this is even the format that my car sat nav displays.






share|improve this answer












1:30 hrs



I most commonly see time with colon characters, for example: "1:30 hrs" to mean 1 hour and 30 minutes. I think this is even the format that my car sat nav displays.







share|improve this answer












share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer










answered 12 hours ago









StalePhish

992




992











  • Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
    – doppelgreener
    8 hours ago










  • @doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
    – Hoki
    6 hours ago

















  • Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
    – doppelgreener
    8 hours ago










  • @doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
    – Hoki
    6 hours ago
















Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
– doppelgreener
8 hours ago




Or is that 1 undefined and 30 hours? Or a ratio? Or a time on the clock? I don't recall ever in my life having seen 1:30 hrs being used to refer to a duration prior to this answer.
– doppelgreener
8 hours ago












@doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
– Hoki
6 hours ago





@doppelgreener I do remember seing durations expressed in this format here and there, so it is used in some places. It doesn't make it right though ... It gives me headache everytime I see it as I have to think hard about the interpretation of each digit, which end up in using the context to find the most plausible match ... in the end I only end up with an educated guess!
– Hoki
6 hours ago











aMJay is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









 

draft saved


draft discarded


















aMJay is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.












aMJay is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.











aMJay is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.













 


draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function ()
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fux.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f122135%2fhow-to-best-display-number-of-hours%23new-answer', 'question_page');

);

Post as a guest













































































Popular posts from this blog

How to check contact read email or not when send email to Individual?

Displaying single band from multi-band raster using QGIS

How many registers does an x86_64 CPU actually have?