How to calculate elapsed time from now with Joda-Time?

Solution 1:

To calculate the elapsed time with JodaTime, use Period. To format the elapsed time in the desired human representation, use PeriodFormatter which you can build by PeriodFormatterBuilder.

Here's a kickoff example:

DateTime myBirthDate = new DateTime(1978, 3, 26, 12, 35, 0, 0);
DateTime now = new DateTime();
Period period = new Period(myBirthDate, now);

PeriodFormatter formatter = new PeriodFormatterBuilder()
    .appendSeconds().appendSuffix(" seconds ago\n")
    .appendMinutes().appendSuffix(" minutes ago\n")
    .appendHours().appendSuffix(" hours ago\n")
    .appendDays().appendSuffix(" days ago\n")
    .appendWeeks().appendSuffix(" weeks ago\n")
    .appendMonths().appendSuffix(" months ago\n")
    .appendYears().appendSuffix(" years ago\n")
    .printZeroNever()
    .toFormatter();

String elapsed = formatter.print(period);
System.out.println(elapsed);

This prints by now

3 seconds ago
51 minutes ago
7 hours ago
6 days ago
10 months ago
31 years ago

^{_{(Cough, old, cough)}} You see that I've taken months and years into account as well and configured it to omit the values when those are zero.

Solution 2:

Use PrettyTime for Simple Elapsed Time.

I tried HumanTime as @sfussenegger answered and using JodaTime's Period but the easiest and cleanest method for human readable elapsed time that I found was the PrettyTime library.

Here's a couple of simple examples with input and output:

Five Minutes Ago

DateTime fiveMinutesAgo = DateTime.now().minusMinutes( 5 );

new PrettyTime().format( fiveMinutesAgo.toDate() );

// Outputs: "5 minutes ago"

Awhile Ago

DateTime birthday = new DateTime(1978, 3, 26, 12, 35, 0, 0);

new PrettyTime().format( birthday.toDate() );

// Outputs: "4 decades ago"

CAUTION: I've tried playing around with the library's more precise functionality, but it produces some odd results so use it with care and in non-life threatening projects.

JP