SecondsToDays

Two functions for formatting seconds (as returned by TIME_PLAYED_MSG or by GetQuestResetTime()) to a human-readable format.

formatSeconds

This is a user-defined function that you can copy and paste into your addon.

Converts seconds to "s", "m:ss", "h:mm:ss", or "d:hh:mm:ss" format

local function formatSeconds(seconds)
    local d, h, m, s; 
    -- Allowing fractional values, since string:format("%d") will coerce to integer
    d =  seconds / 86400;                -- 86400 seconds in a day
    h = (seconds % 86400) / 3600;        -- seconds in the left-over day, divided by seconds in an hour
    m = (seconds % 86400  % 3600) / 60;  -- seconds in the left-over hour, divided by seconds in a minute
    s =  seconds % 86400  % 3600  % 60;  -- seconds in the left-over minute
    -- Add or remove output formats you want
    if d >= 1 then return ("%d:%02d:%02d:%02d"):format(d,h,m,s); end;
    if h >= 1 then return (     "%d:%02d:%02d"):format(  h,m,s); end;
    -- For better clarity, you could keep the minutes even if they're zero:
    --             return (          "%d:%02d"):format(    m,s);
    if m >= 1 then return (          "%d:%02d"):format(    m,s); end;
    return s;
end

Examples

Example usage:

/run print("Dailies rollover in "..formatSeconds(GetQuestResetTime()))

Example runs:

/run print(formatSeconds(100))
1:40
/run print(formatSeconds(100000)) 
1:03:46:40 
/run print(formatSeconds(3606))
1:00:06

Fractions are ignored:

/run print(formatSeconds(3606.4))
1:00:06

Negative numbers wind up being interpreted oddly, but understandably:

/run print(formatSeconds(-3))
23:59:57
/run print(formatSeconds(-3606))
22:59:54

Notes

Non-numeric values will generate a runtime error.

Runtime performance is unlikely to matter in code that formats output, but if you're doing this in a tight loop (maybe in logging code), this version will be preferable to the one below, since using the modulo operator (%) and the string:format decimal specifier (%d) is about an order of magnitude faster than using bit.mod() and math.floor(); similarly, string:format() is about the same times faster than repeated string concatenation (a..b..c etc). (Based on measurements against WoW 4.0.3)

You could probably speed this up a little by retaining the values of (seconds % 86400) and ((seconds % 86400) % 3600), at the cost of two more variables to read. I haven't profiled that.

As always, your best bet is to use code that you can read and maintain more easily.

secondsToDays

This is a user-defined function that you can copy and paste into your addon.

Function for converting the TIME_PLAYED_MSG response (or any source of seconds) to a X days/X hours/X minutes/X seconds format.

secondsToDays(inputSeconds)

Function Parameters

Arguments

inputSeconds

Number - the amount of seconds to convert

Returns

result

String - the equivalent combination, using the format: "# days/# hours/# minutes/# seconds"

Details

Works with any amount of seconds

Code

function secondsToDays(inputSeconds)
 fdays = math.floor(inputSeconds/86400)
 fhours = math.floor((bit.mod(inputSeconds,86400))/3600)
 fminutes = math.floor(bit.mod((bit.mod(inputSeconds,86400)),3600)/60)
 fseconds = math.floor(bit.mod(bit.mod((bit.mod(inputSeconds,86400)),3600),60))
 return fdays.." days/"..fhours.." hours/"..fminutes.." minutes/"..fseconds.." seconds"
end