Converting timestamp to time ago in PHP e.g 1 day ago, 2 days ago...

I am trying to convert a timestamp of the format 2009-09-12 20:57:19 and turn it into something like 3 minutes ago with PHP.

I found a useful script to do this, but I think it's looking for a different format to be used as the time variable. The script I'm wanting to modify to work with this format is:

function _ago($tm,$rcs = 0) {
    $cur_tm = time(); 
    $dif = $cur_tm-$tm;
    $pds = array('second','minute','hour','day','week','month','year','decade');
    $lngh = array(1,60,3600,86400,604800,2630880,31570560,315705600);

    for($v = sizeof($lngh)-1; ($v >= 0)&&(($no = $dif/$lngh[$v])<=1); $v--); if($v < 0) $v = 0; $_tm = $cur_tm-($dif%$lngh[$v]);
        $no = floor($no);
        if($no <> 1)
            $pds[$v] .='s';
        $x = sprintf("%d %s ",$no,$pds[$v]);
        if(($rcs == 1)&&($v >= 1)&&(($cur_tm-$_tm) > 0))
            $x .= time_ago($_tm);
        return $x;
    }

I think on those first few lines the script is trying to do something that looks like this (different date format math):

$dif = 1252809479 - 2009-09-12 20:57:19;

How would I go about converting my timestamp into that (unix?) format?

Solution 1:

Use example :

echo time_elapsed_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35');
echo time_elapsed_string('@1367367755'); # timestamp input
echo time_elapsed_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35', true);

Input can be any supported date and time format.

Output :

4 months ago
4 months ago
4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes, 15 seconds ago

Function :

function time_elapsed_string($datetime, $full = false) {
    $now = new DateTime;
    $ago = new DateTime($datetime);
    $diff = $now->diff($ago);

    $diff->w = floor($diff->d / 7);
    $diff->d -= $diff->w * 7;

    $string = array(
        'y' => 'year',
        'm' => 'month',
        'w' => 'week',
        'd' => 'day',
        'h' => 'hour',
        'i' => 'minute',
        's' => 'second',
    );
    foreach ($string as $k => &$v) {
        if ($diff->$k) {
            $v = $diff->$k . ' ' . $v . ($diff->$k > 1 ? 's' : '');
        } else {
            unset($string[$k]);
        }
    }

    if (!$full) $string = array_slice($string, 0, 1);
    return $string ? implode(', ', $string) . ' ago' : 'just now';
}

Solution 2:

function time_elapsed_string($ptime)
{
    $etime = time() - $ptime;

    if ($etime < 1)
    {
        return '0 seconds';
    }

    $a = array( 365 * 24 * 60 * 60  =>  'year',
                 30 * 24 * 60 * 60  =>  'month',
                      24 * 60 * 60  =>  'day',
                           60 * 60  =>  'hour',
                                60  =>  'minute',
                                 1  =>  'second'
                );
    $a_plural = array( 'year'   => 'years',
                       'month'  => 'months',
                       'day'    => 'days',
                       'hour'   => 'hours',
                       'minute' => 'minutes',
                       'second' => 'seconds'
                );

    foreach ($a as $secs => $str)
    {
        $d = $etime / $secs;
        if ($d >= 1)
        {
            $r = round($d);
            return $r . ' ' . ($r > 1 ? $a_plural[$str] : $str) . ' ago';
        }
    }
}

Solution 3:

$time_elapsed = timeAgo($time_ago); //The argument $time_ago is in timestamp (Y-m-d H:i:s)format.

//Function definition

function timeAgo($time_ago)
{
    $time_ago = strtotime($time_ago);
    $cur_time   = time();
    $time_elapsed   = $cur_time - $time_ago;
    $seconds    = $time_elapsed ;
    $minutes    = round($time_elapsed / 60 );
    $hours      = round($time_elapsed / 3600);
    $days       = round($time_elapsed / 86400 );
    $weeks      = round($time_elapsed / 604800);
    $months     = round($time_elapsed / 2600640 );
    $years      = round($time_elapsed / 31207680 );
    // Seconds
    if($seconds <= 60){
        return "just now";
    }
    //Minutes
    else if($minutes <=60){
        if($minutes==1){
            return "one minute ago";
        }
        else{
            return "$minutes minutes ago";
        }
    }
    //Hours
    else if($hours <=24){
        if($hours==1){
            return "an hour ago";
        }else{
            return "$hours hrs ago";
        }
    }
    //Days
    else if($days <= 7){
        if($days==1){
            return "yesterday";
        }else{
            return "$days days ago";
        }
    }
    //Weeks
    else if($weeks <= 4.3){
        if($weeks==1){
            return "a week ago";
        }else{
            return "$weeks weeks ago";
        }
    }
    //Months
    else if($months <=12){
        if($months==1){
            return "a month ago";
        }else{
            return "$months months ago";
        }
    }
    //Years
    else{
        if($years==1){
            return "one year ago";
        }else{
            return "$years years ago";
        }
    }
}

Solution 4:

I don't know why nobody mention Carbon yet.

https://github.com/briannesbitt/Carbon

This is actually an extension to php dateTime (which was already used here) and it has: diffForHumans method. So all you need to do is:

$dt = Carbon::parse('2012-9-5 23:26:11.123789');
echo $dt->diffForHumans();

more examples: http://carbon.nesbot.com/docs/#api-humandiff

Pros of this solution:

it works for future dates and will return something like in 2 months etc.
you can use localization to get other languages and the pluralization works fine
if you will start using Carbon for other things working with dates will be as easy as never.

Solution 5:

This is actually a better solution I've found. Uses jQuery however it works perfectly. Also it refreshes automatically similar to the way SO and Facebook does so you don't have to refresh the page to see the updates.

This plugin will read your datetime attr in the <time> tag and fill it in for you.

e.g. "4 minutes ago" or "about 1 day ago

http://timeago.yarp.com/