Best way to convert DateTime to “n Hours Ago” in SQL

Question

I wrote a SQL function to convert a datetime value in SQL to a friendlier \"n Hours Ago\" or \"n Days Ago\" etc type of message. And I was wondering if there was a better wa

Answer 1

The posts above gave me some good ideas so here is another function for anyone using SQL Server 2012.

    CREATE FUNCTION [dbo].[FN_TIME_ELAPSED] 
    (
        @TIMESTAMP DATETIME
    )
    RETURNS VARCHAR(50)
    AS
    BEGIN

    RETURN 
    (
        SELECT TIME_ELAPSED = 
            CASE
                WHEN @TIMESTAMP IS NULL THEN NULL
                WHEN MINUTES_AGO < 60 THEN CONCAT(MINUTES_AGO, ' minutes ago')
                WHEN HOURS_AGO < 24 THEN CONCAT(HOURS_AGO, ' hours ago')
                WHEN DAYS_AGO < 365 THEN CONCAT(DAYS_AGO, ' days ago')
                ELSE CONCAT(YEARS_AGO, ' years ago') END
        FROM ( SELECT MINUTES_AGO = DATEDIFF(MINUTE, @TIMESTAMP, GETDATE()) ) TIMESPAN_MIN
        CROSS APPLY ( SELECT HOURS_AGO = DATEDIFF(HOUR, @TIMESTAMP, GETDATE()) ) TIMESPAN_HOUR
        CROSS APPLY ( SELECT DAYS_AGO = DATEDIFF(DAY, @TIMESTAMP, GETDATE()) ) TIMESPAN_DAY
        CROSS APPLY ( SELECT YEARS_AGO = DATEDIFF(YEAR, @TIMESTAMP, GETDATE()) ) TIMESPAN_YEAR
    )
    END
    GO

And the implementation:

    SELECT TIME_ELAPSED = DBO.FN_TIME_ELAPSED(AUDIT_TIMESTAMP)
    FROM SOME_AUDIT_TABLE