Adding 00s to DAYS in a counter timer using format YEARS:DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS

Adobe After Effects Expressions

Adding 00s to DAYS in a counter timer using format YEARS:DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS

Posted by Simon Peller on August 15, 2020 at 12:36 am

Hi everyone.
Long time lurker. First time poster ☺
Usually I can hash together an expression using what I can find online (mostly from this website tbh) but I’m having trouble with this particular one.

I’m making a counter using the expression below. The time format I’m using is YEARS:DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES:SECONDS

As you can see I’m using a function to add 0 to n if n is less than 10.
This works fine for the 2 digit numbers (YEARS, HOURS, MINUTES, SECONDS) but not with the 3 digit number (DAYS).

I would like to achieve YY:DDD:HH:MM:SS
For example 01:009:23:59:59. Where the DAYS always has 3 digits whether its 001, 999 or anything in between.

Thank you kindly for your help. I hope in the future, as I grow in confidence using expressions, I’ll be able to help someone else here in return.
Much love and respect.

Simon.

slider = effect("Point Control")("Point")[0]
sec = Math.floor(slider)%60; min = Math.floor(slider/60)%60; hour = Math.floor(slider/3600)%24; days = Math.floor(slider/86400)%365; years = Math.floor(slider/31536000); function addZero(n) { if (n < 10) return "0" + n else return n; }
addZero(years) + ":" + addZero(days) + ":" + addZero(hour) + ":" + addZero(min) + ":" + addZero(sec)

Simon Peller replied 5 years, 10 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
4 Replies

Chaz Chester
August 15, 2020 at 1:46 am

Like this?
slider = effect(“Slider Control”)(“Slider”);

sec = Math.floor(slider)%60;
min = Math.floor(slider/60)%60;
hour = Math.floor(slider/3600)%24;
days = Math.floor(slider/86400)%365;
years = Math.floor(slider/31536000);

function addZero(n) {
if (n < 10) return “0” + n else return n;
}

function addTwoZero(n) {
if (n < 10) return “00” + n;
if (n >= 10 && n < 100) return “0” + n;
else return n;
}

addZero(years) + “:” + addTwoZero(days) + “:” + addZero(hour) + “:” + addZero(min) + “:” + addZero(sec)
Filip Vandueren
August 15, 2020 at 7:48 am

A compact Javascript way to add leading zeroes is to always add more than you need, then slice the string length to what you need from the right like this:

(“00″+days).slice(-3);

and

(“0″+months).slice(-2);

This works if you’re sure days is never more than 3 digits, months never more than 2
Because for example
(“00″+123).slice(-2)
would return 23, not 123
Simon Peller
August 15, 2020 at 2:28 pm

Wonderful. Perfect. Thank you.

Not only has this solved my initial problem but by reverse engineering and tweaking your additional bit of code it has allowed me to solve a couple of other problems I was having trouble with in other projects.

Really, thanks so much for taking the time to reply so quickly.
Simon
Simon Peller
August 15, 2020 at 2:37 pm

Thank you for your swift reply.
Unfortunately I don’t fully understand this due to my lack of Java knowledge. No doubt as I become more familiar with expressions and Java your reply will make a lot more sense ☺

For now my problem was solved with the help of Chaz Chester in one of the replies above.

Thanks again
Simon

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