Question

How to calculate relative past time from a given date & time (e.g., 3 hours ago, 5 days ago, a month ago) in PHP

Answer 1

function toRelativePastTime(DateTimeImmutable $past): string
{
    $now = new DateTimeImmutable('now', new DateTimeZone('UTC'));
    $delta = abs($now->getTimestamp() - $past->getTimestamp());

    $seconds = $delta;
    $minutes = intdiv($seconds, 60);
    $hours   = intdiv($seconds, 3600);
    $days    = intdiv($seconds, 86400);

    if ($seconds < 60) {
        return $seconds === 1 ? "one second ago" : "$seconds seconds ago";
    }

    if ($seconds < 3600) {
        return $minutes === 1 ? "a minute ago" : "$minutes minutes ago";
    }

    if ($seconds < 86400) {
        return $hours === 1 ? "an hour ago" : "$hours hours ago";
    }

    if ($seconds < 2592000) { // 30 days
        return $days === 1 ? "yesterday" : "$days days ago";
    }

    if ($seconds < 31104000) { // 12 months
        $months = intdiv($days, 30);
        return $months <= 1 ? "a month ago" : "$months months ago";
    }

    $years = intdiv($days, 365);
    return $years <= 1 ? "a year ago" : "$years years ago";
}

function test(float $hoursAgo): void
{
    $secondsAgo = (int)round($hoursAgo * 3600);
    $past = (new DateTimeImmutable('now', new DateTimeZone('UTC')))
                ->sub(new DateInterval("PT{$secondsAgo}S"));
    echo toRelativePastTime($past) . PHP_EOL;
}

test(0.01);    // 36 seconds ago
test(0.2);     // 12 minutes ago
test(3);       // 3 hours ago
test(25);      // yesterday
test(360);     // 15 days ago
test(1239);    // a month ago
test(2239);    // 3 months ago
test(8760);    // a year ago
test(98763);   // 11 years ago



/*
run:

36 seconds ago
12 minutes ago
3 hours ago
yesterday
15 days ago
a month ago
3 months ago
a year ago
11 years ago

*/

 

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