parsetimespan

Parsetimespan is a programming utility that converts a textual representation of a time interval into a duration value. It is commonly implemented as a function or method in various programming languages and libraries to interpret strings as time spans for scheduling, timers, or duration arithmetic.

Input formats vary by implementation but commonly include ISO 8601 durations (for example P2DT3H), compact forms such as hh:mm:ss or d.hh:mm:ss, and more natural-language forms like "2 hours 30 minutes". The function typically returns a duration object or a numeric value representing the total length of the interval (often seconds or milliseconds). It may also support negative durations, indicated by a leading minus sign.

Behavior and error handling differ: some parsers are strict about format, raising an exception on invalid input; others are lenient and attempt to extract as much information as possible. Ambiguities can arise with short forms; for example, "01:02:03" could be interpreted as one hour, two minutes, and three seconds in many contexts.

Examples: parsetimespan('P1DT2H') yields 1 day and 2 hours; parsetimespan('02:04:05') yields 2 hours, 4 minutes, and 5 seconds. Use cases include converting configuration values, parsing logs, and performing duration arithmetic across systems that emit or require human-readable time spans.