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

Answer 1

I usually use this to find out difference between current and passed datetime stamp

OUTPUT

//If difference is greater than 7 days
7 June 2019

// if difference is greater than 24 hours and less than 7 days
1 days ago
6 days ago

1 hour ago
23 hours ago

1 minute ago
58 minutes ago

1 second ago
20 seconds ago

CODE

//return current date time
function getCurrentDateTime(){
    //date_default_timezone_set("Asia/Calcutta");
    return date("Y-m-d H:i:s");
}
function getDateString($date){
    $dateArray = date_parse_from_format('Y/m/d', $date);
    $monthName = DateTime::createFromFormat('!m', $dateArray['month'])->format('F');
    return $dateArray['day'] . " " . $monthName  . " " . $dateArray['year'];
}

function getDateTimeDifferenceString($datetime){
    $currentDateTime = new DateTime(getCurrentDateTime());
    $passedDateTime = new DateTime($datetime);
    $interval = $currentDateTime->diff($passedDateTime);
    //$elapsed = $interval->format('%y years %m months %a days %h hours %i minutes %s seconds');
    $day = $interval->format('%a');
    $hour = $interval->format('%h');
    $min = $interval->format('%i');
    $seconds = $interval->format('%s');

    if($day > 7)
        return getDateString($datetime);
    else if($day >= 1 && $day <= 7 ){
        if($day == 1) return $day . " day ago";
        return $day . " days ago";
    }else if($hour >= 1 && $hour <= 24){
        if($hour == 1) return $hour . " hour ago";
        return $hour . " hours ago";
    }else if($min >= 1 && $min <= 60){
        if($min == 1) return $min . " minute ago";
        return $min . " minutes ago";
    }else if($seconds >= 1 && $seconds <= 60){
        if($seconds == 1) return $seconds . " second ago";
        return $seconds . " seconds ago";
    }
}

Answer 2

I'm aware that there are several answers here, but this is what I came up with. This only handles MySQL DATETIME values as per the original question I was responding to. The array $a needs some work. I welcome comments on how to improve. Call as:

echo time_elapsed_string('2014-11-14 09:42:28');

function time_elapsed_string($ptime)
{
    // Past time as MySQL DATETIME value
    $ptime = strtotime($ptime);

    // Current time as MySQL DATETIME value
    $csqltime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

    // Current time as Unix timestamp
    $ctime = strtotime($csqltime); 

    // Elapsed time
    $etime = $ctime - $ptime;

    // If no elapsed time, return 0
    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){
        // Divide elapsed time by seconds
        $d = $etime / $secs;
        if ($d >= 1){
            // Round to the next lowest integer 
            $r = floor($d);
            // Calculate time to remove from elapsed time
            $rtime = $r * $secs;
            // Recalculate and store elapsed time for next loop
            if(($etime - $rtime)  < 0){
                $etime -= ($r - 1) * $secs;
            }
            else{
                $etime -= $rtime;
            }
            // Create string to return
            $estring = $estring . $r . ' ' . ($r > 1 ? $a_plural[$str] : $str) . ' ';
        }
    }
    return $estring . ' ago';
}

Answer 3

Here's my solution for a notification module I built some time ago. It returns output similar to Facebook's notifications dropdown (eg. 1 day ago, Just now, etc).

public function getTimeDifference($time) {
    //Let's set the current time
    $currentTime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');
    $toTime = strtotime($currentTime);

    //And the time the notification was set
    $fromTime = strtotime($time);

    //Now calc the difference between the two
    $timeDiff = floor(abs($toTime - $fromTime) / 60);

    //Now we need find out whether or not the time difference needs to be in
    //minutes, hours, or days
    if ($timeDiff < 2) {
        $timeDiff = "Just now";
    } elseif ($timeDiff > 2 && $timeDiff < 60) {
        $timeDiff = floor(abs($timeDiff)) . " minutes ago";
    } elseif ($timeDiff > 60 && $timeDiff < 120) {
        $timeDiff = floor(abs($timeDiff / 60)) . " hour ago";
    } elseif ($timeDiff < 1440) {
        $timeDiff = floor(abs($timeDiff / 60)) . " hours ago";
    } elseif ($timeDiff > 1440 && $timeDiff < 2880) {
        $timeDiff = floor(abs($timeDiff / 1440)) . " day ago";
    } elseif ($timeDiff > 2880) {
        $timeDiff = floor(abs($timeDiff / 1440)) . " days ago";
    }

    return $timeDiff;
}

Answer 4

This is what I went with. Its a modified version of Abbbas khan's post:

<?php

  function calculate_time_span($post_time)
  {  
  $seconds = time() - strtotime($post);
  $year = floor($seconds /31556926);
  $months = floor($seconds /2629743);
  $week=floor($seconds /604800);
  $day = floor($seconds /86400); 
  $hours = floor($seconds / 3600);
  $mins = floor(($seconds - ($hours*3600)) / 60); 
  $secs = floor($seconds % 60);
  if($seconds < 60) $time = $secs." seconds ago";
  else if($seconds < 3600 ) $time =($mins==1)?$mins."now":$mins." mins ago";
  else if($seconds < 86400) $time = ($hours==1)?$hours." hour ago":$hours." hours ago";
  else if($seconds < 604800) $time = ($day==1)?$day." day ago":$day." days ago";
  else if($seconds < 2629743) $time = ($week==1)?$week." week ago":$week." weeks ago";
  else if($seconds < 31556926) $time =($months==1)? $months." month ago":$months." months ago";
  else $time = ($year==1)? $year." year ago":$year." years ago";
  return $time; 
  }  



 // uses
 // $post_time="2017-12-05 02:05:12";
 // echo calculate_time_span($post_time); 

Answer 5

This function is not made to be used for the English language. I translated the words in English. This needs more fixing before using for English.

function ago($d) {
$ts = time() - strtotime(str_replace("-","/",$d));

        if($ts>315360000) $val = round($ts/31536000,0).' year';
        else if($ts>94608000) $val = round($ts/31536000,0).' years';
        else if($ts>63072000) $val = ' two years';
        else if($ts>31536000) $val = ' a year';

        else if($ts>24192000) $val = round($ts/2419200,0).' month';
        else if($ts>7257600) $val = round($ts/2419200,0).' months';
        else if($ts>4838400) $val = ' two months';
        else if($ts>2419200) $val = ' a month';


        else if($ts>6048000) $val = round($ts/604800,0).' week';
        else if($ts>1814400) $val = round($ts/604800,0).' weeks';
        else if($ts>1209600) $val = ' two weeks';
        else if($ts>604800) $val = ' a week';

        else if($ts>864000) $val = round($ts/86400,0).' day';
        else if($ts>259200) $val = round($ts/86400,0).' days';
        else if($ts>172800) $val = ' two days';
        else if($ts>86400) $val = ' a day';

        else if($ts>36000) $val = round($ts/3600,0).' year';
        else if($ts>10800) $val = round($ts/3600,0).' years';
        else if($ts>7200) $val = ' two years';
        else if($ts>3600) $val = ' a year';

        else if($ts>600) $val = round($ts/60,0).' minute';
        else if($ts>180) $val = round($ts/60,0).' minutes';
        else if($ts>120) $val = ' two minutes';
        else if($ts>60) $val = ' a minute';

        else if($ts>10) $val = round($ts,0).' second';
        else if($ts>2) $val = round($ts,0).' seconds';
        else if($ts>1) $val = ' two seconds';
        else $val = $ts.' a second';


        return $val;
    }

Answer 6

just pass the date time to this func. it would print out in time ago format for you

date_default_timezone_set('your-time-zone');
function convert($datetime){
  $time=strtotime($datetime);
  $diff=time()-$time;
  $diff/=60;
  $var1=floor($diff);
  $var=$var1<=1 ? 'min' : 'mins';
  if($diff>=60){
    $diff/=60;
    $var1=floor($diff);
    $var=$var1<=1 ? 'hr' : 'hrs';
    if($diff>=24){$diff/=24;$var1=floor($diff);$var=$var1<=1 ? 'day' : 'days';
    if($diff>=30.4375){$diff/=30.4375;$var1=floor($diff);$var=$var1<=1 ? 'month' : 'months';
    if($diff>=12){$diff/=12;$var1=floor($diff);$var=$var1<=1 ? 'year' : 'years';}}}}
    echo $var1,' ',$var,' ago';
  }