Blog, PHP

Human Readable Time Difference With PHP

Most social networks provide a historical timestamp to read as a human-readable string - such as 1 day ago, 3 weeks ago, 1 year, 5 months, and so on. The same application applies to future events or posts. The purpose of the string is to provide a general frame of time-reference and thus negating the need for any mental acrobatics. WordPress provides a default function called human_time_diff() that accomplishes this from within WordPress. It's this function we've slightly modified for use in other PHP applications (outside of WP).

PHP Code

<?php

Retrieve the plural or single form based on the supplied amount.

@param string $single The text that will be used if $number is 1.

@param string $plural The text that will be used if $number is not 1.

@param int $number The number to compare against to use either $single or $plural.

@return string Either $single or $plural translated text.

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/4.7.3/src/wp-includes/l10n.php#L361

function _n($single, $plural, $number) {

return 1 === $number ? $single : $plural;

}

Determines the difference between two timestamps.

Static Day Countdown with WordPress Shortcode or PHP

http://www.beliefmedia.com/static-countdown

https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/4.8/src/wp-includes/formatting.php#L3216

function beliefmedia_human_time_diff($from, $to = '', $text = false) {

if (empty($to)) $to = time();

$diff = (int) abs($to - $from);

if ($diff < 3600) {

$mins = round($diff / 60);

if ($mins <= 1)

$mins = 1;

/* translators: min=minute */

$since = sprintf(_n('%s min', '%s mins', $mins), $mins);

}

elseif ($diff < 86400 && $diff >= 3600) {

$hours = round($diff / 3600);

if ($hours <= 1)

$hours = 1;

$since = sprintf(_n('%s hour', '%s hours', $hours), $hours);

}

elseif ($diff < 604800 && $diff >= 86400) {

$days = round($diff / 86400);

if ($days <= 1)

$days = 1;

$since = sprintf(_n('%s day', '%s days', $days), $days);

}

elseif ($diff < 30 * 86400 && $diff >= 604800) {

$weeks = round($diff / 604800);

if ($weeks <= 1)

$weeks = 1;

$since = sprintf(_n('%s week', '%s weeks', $weeks), $weeks);

}

elseif ($diff < 31536000 && $diff >= 30 * 86400) {

$months = round($diff / (30 * 86400));

if ($months <= 1)

$months = 1;

$since = sprintf(_n('%s month', '%s months', $months), $months);

}

elseif ($diff >= 31536000) {

$years = round($diff / 31536000);

if ($years <= 1)

$years = 1;

$since = sprintf(_n('%s year', '%s years', $years), $years);

}

return ($to - $from > 0) ? $since : $since = ($text !== false) ? $since. ' ago' : $since;

}

Examples

<?php

/* Usage */

$from = '1497911060'; $to = '117849600';

echo beliefmedia_human_time_diff($from, $to, $text = true);

Returns: 44 years ago.

<?php

/* Usage */

$from = '1497911060'; $to = '1514721599'; /* NYE 2017 */

echo beliefmedia_human_time_diff($from, $to, $text = true);

Returns: 6 months.

Considerations

The argument of $text determines if the ago text is returned.
You may find other variations of this function on our PHP Snippets page.
See also: Static Day Countdown with WordPress Shortcode or PHP.
See also: Display Time To Published or Scheduled Posts (WP Snippet).
The _n function is one to essentially nullify the WP translation object.

Download

Title: Human Readable Time Difference With PHP
Description: Human Readable Time Difference With PHP. A modified version of WP's human_time_diff function.
Download • Version 0.2, 1.1K, zip, Category: PHP Code & Snippets