Question

I use Codeigniter and it has the timespan() function that returns the time as 1 Year, 10 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, 10 Hours, 16 Minutes.

What I’d like to do is only show the time formatted in x hours ago if the time is within the last 24 hours, otherwise just show a normal datetime.

I feel like there’s got to be a function already made to do this but I haven’t had any luck finding it.

This is the timespan function included with Codeigniter, how can I alter it?

/**
 * Timespan
 *
 * Returns a span of seconds in this format:
 *  10 days 14 hours 36 minutes 47 seconds
 *
 * @access  public
 * @param   integer a number of seconds
 * @param   integer Unix timestamp
 * @return  integer
 */
if ( ! function_exists('timespan'))
{
    function timespan($seconds = 1, $time = '')
    {
        $CI =& get_instance();
        $CI->lang->load('date');

        if ( ! is_numeric($seconds))
        {
            $seconds = 1;
        }

        if ( ! is_numeric($time))
        {
            $time = time();
        }

        if ($time <= $seconds)
        {
            $seconds = 1;
        }
        else
        {
            $seconds = $time - $seconds;
        }

        $str = '';
        $years = floor($seconds / 31536000);

        if ($years > 0)
        {
            $str .= $years.' '.$CI->lang->line((($years > 1) ? 'date_years' : 'date_year')).', ';
        }

        $seconds -= $years * 31536000;
        $months = floor($seconds / 2628000);

        if ($years > 0 OR $months > 0)
        {
            if ($months > 0)
            {
                $str .= $months.' '.$CI->lang->line((($months   > 1) ? 'date_months' : 'date_month')).', ';
            }

            $seconds -= $months * 2628000;
        }

        $weeks = floor($seconds / 604800);

        if ($years > 0 OR $months > 0 OR $weeks > 0)
        {
            if ($weeks > 0)
            {
                $str .= $weeks.' '.$CI->lang->line((($weeks > 1) ? 'date_weeks' : 'date_week')).', ';
            }

            $seconds -= $weeks * 604800;
        }

        $days = floor($seconds / 86400);

        if ($months > 0 OR $weeks > 0 OR $days > 0)
        {
            if ($days > 0)
            {
                $str .= $days.' '.$CI->lang->line((($days   > 1) ? 'date_days' : 'date_day')).', ';
            }

            $seconds -= $days * 86400;
        }

        $hours = floor($seconds / 3600);

        if ($days > 0 OR $hours > 0)
        {
            if ($hours > 0)
            {
                $str .= $hours.' '.$CI->lang->line((($hours > 1) ? 'date_hours' : 'date_hour')).', ';
            }

            $seconds -= $hours * 3600;
        }

        $minutes = floor($seconds / 60);

        if ($days > 0 OR $hours > 0 OR $minutes > 0)
        {
            if ($minutes > 0)
            {
                $str .= $minutes.' '.$CI->lang->line((($minutes > 1) ? 'date_minutes' : 'date_minute')).', ';
            }

            $seconds -= $minutes * 60;
        }

        if ($str == '')
        {
            $str .= $seconds.' '.$CI->lang->line((($seconds > 1) ? 'date_seconds' : 'date_second')).', ';
        }

        return substr(trim($str), 0, -1);
    }
}

Answer 1

This function will accept a string, a numeric (unix) timestamp, or a DateTime object. It also accepts jQuery.now(). Time may be in the future or past.

function time_ago($time=false, $just_now=false) {
    if ($time instanceOf DateTime)
        $time = $time->getTimestamp();
    elseif (is_numeric($time))
        $time = date('m/d/y h:i A', $time);
    if (strtotime($time) === false)
        $time = date('m/d/y h:i A', time());
    $interval =  date_create($time)->diff(date_create('now'));
    $adjective = strtotime($time) > time() ? 'from now' : 'ago';
    return (
        $interval->days > 0 ? 
            $time : (
                $interval->h < 1  && $interval->i < 1 && $just_now ? 
                    'just now' : 
                    (
                        $interval->h > 1 ? 
                            $interval->h.' hour'.(
                                $interval->h > 1 ? 
                                    's' : 
                                    ''
                            ).' ago' : 
                            $interval->i.' minutes'.' '.$adjective
                    )
            )
    );
}


echo time_ago('8/22/2012 5:00 PM'); // 3 hours ago
echo time_ago('8/21/2012 5:00 PM'); // 8/21/2012 5:00 PM
echo time_ago(time()); // 0 hours ago
echo time_ago(time(), true); // just now
echo time_ago(strtotime('5 days ago')); // 08/17/12 08:18 PM
echo time_ago(strtotime('5 hours ago')); // 5 hours ago
echo time_ago(strtotime('5 minutes ago')); // 5 minutes ago
echo time_ago(strtotime('+5 minutes')); // 5 minutes from now

echo time_ago('jQuery.now()', true); // just now
echo time_ago('sweet explosions, bro!', true); // just now

Documentation

• date – http://php.net/manual/en/function.date.php
• DateTime object – http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.datetime.php
• DateInterval object – http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.dateinterval.php
• is_numeric – http://php.net/manual/en/function.is-numeric.php