Duration (HH:MM:SS) Regex Pattern

Live Regex Tester

Pattern Breakdown

Code Examples

const regex = /^\d+:[0-5]\d:[0-5]\d$/;
const test = "01:30:45";
console.log(regex.test(test)); // true

// Extract matches
const matches = test.match(regex);
console.log(matches);

import re

pattern = r'^\d+:[0-5]\d:[0-5]\d$'
test = "01:30:45"
match = re.search(pattern, test)
print(match)  # Found!

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "regexp"
)

func main() {
    re := regexp.MustCompile(`^\d+:[0-5]\d:[0-5]\d$`)
    fmt.Println(re.MatchString("01:30:45")) // true
}

Common Use Cases

Match Examples

Duration regex variants for HH:MM:SS, MM:SS, optional hours, and ISO 8601

The base pattern validates elapsed duration strings such as 01:30:45 or 125:00:00. Use a narrower variant when a product needs fixed two-digit hours, media-player MM:SS input, optional hours, millisecond precision, or ISO 8601 duration strings.

Edge cases to test

About the Duration (HH:MM:SS) Regex

Validates elapsed duration strings in HH:MM:SS format with any hour count, minutes 00-59, and seconds 00-59. Use for video length, stopwatch timers, time tracking, and log duration fields.

Regular expressions (regex) are powerful pattern matching tools used across virtually all programming languages. The duration (hh:mm:ss) pattern is classified as <strong>beginner</strong> difficulty in the <strong>date & time</strong> category. It works in all major programming languages.

When using this regex, always consider edge cases and test thoroughly with real-world data. Use the interactive tester above to validate the pattern against your specific inputs before deploying to production.

More Date & Time Patterns