Close

Java Date Time - Duration.minus() Examples

[Last Updated: Nov 8, 2025]

Java Date Time Java Java API 

PreviousNext

Class:

java.time.Duration

java.lang.Objectjava.lang.Objectjava.time.Durationjava.time.Durationjava.time.temporal.TemporalAmountTemporalAmountjava.lang.ComparableComparablejava.io.SerializableSerializableLogicBig

Methods:

public Duration minus(Duration duration)

Returns a copy of this duration with the specified duration subtracted.


public Duration minus(long amountToSubtract,
                      TemporalUnit unit)

This method returns a copy of this Duration, subtracted by the provided amount per provided TemporalUnit.

Examples


package com.logicbig.example.duration;

import java.time.Duration;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;

public class MinusExample {

    public static void main(String... args) {
        Duration d = Duration.between(LocalDate.now().atStartOfDay(), LocalDateTime.now());
        System.out.println(d);

        Duration d2 = Duration.ofDays(200);
        System.out.println(d2);

        Duration d3 = d.minus(d2);
        System.out.println(d3);
    }
}

Output

PT23H59M0.894S
PT4800H
PT-4776H-1M0.894S




package com.logicbig.example.duration;

import java.time.DateTimeException;
import java.time.Duration;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.temporal.ChronoUnit;

public class MinusExample2 {

    public static void main(String... args) {
        Duration d = Duration.between(LocalDate.now().atStartOfDay(), LocalDateTime.now());
        System.out.println(d);

        for (ChronoUnit chronoUnit : ChronoUnit.values()) {
            try {
                Duration d2 = d.minus(4, chronoUnit);
                System.out.printf("%10s: %s%n", chronoUnit.name(), d2);
            } catch (DateTimeException e) {
                System.out.printf("%10s: not supported%n", chronoUnit.name());
            }
        }
    }
}

Output

PT23H59M7.116S
     NANOS: PT23H59M7.115999996S
    MICROS: PT23H59M7.115996S
    MILLIS: PT23H59M7.112S
   SECONDS: PT23H59M3.116S
   MINUTES: PT23H55M7.116S
     HOURS: PT19H59M7.116S
 HALF_DAYS: PT-24H-52.884S
      DAYS: PT-72H-52.884S
     WEEKS: not supported
    MONTHS: not supported
     YEARS: not supported
   DECADES: not supported
 CENTURIES: not supported
 MILLENNIA: not supported
      ERAS: not supported
   FOREVER: not supported




package com.logicbig.example.duration;

import java.time.Duration;
import java.time.LocalDate;
import java.time.LocalDateTime;
import java.time.temporal.TemporalUnit;

public class MinusExample3 {

    public static void main(String... args) {
        Duration d = Duration.between(LocalDate.now().atStartOfDay(), LocalDateTime.now());
        System.out.println(d);

        for (TemporalUnit unit : d.getUnits()) {
            Duration d2 = d.minus(4, unit);
            System.out.printf("%10s: %s%n", unit, d2);
        }
    }
}

Output

PT23H59M11.373S
   Seconds: PT23H59M7.373S
     Nanos: PT23H59M11.372999996S

See Also