Hi newbie, Well this sounds like a mathematical function that you would have to make something like - public int returnSecondsSinceTwelve(int hour, int minute, int second) { int timeSinceTwelve = 0; if(hour > 12) { timeSinceTwelve = hour - 12; } else if(hour < 12) { timeSinceTwelve = hour; } timeSinceTwelve = timeSinceTwelve * 60 * 60; minute = minute * 60; return timeSinceTwelve + minute + second; } i havent tried this function so i dont gaurantee that it will work (i just wrote it roughly and really quick) but the basic theory is - to get seconds out of an hour multiply it by 60 (minutes) and then again by 60 (seconds) - to get seconds out of an minute multiply it by 60. Then add these all up (including second which is already in the right format) and you will get the total seconds. Hope this clears thins up.