Question

There is this really nice function from the php.net documentation that enables you to format time in a Facebook-style manner (e.g., 2 minutes ago, 4 weeks ago, or 3 years ago).

However, I prefer the way Stackoverflow and Apple Mail does it which is generally as follows:

1. The current day is listed in x seconds ago or x hours ago or time (e.g, 4:35pm).
2. Yesterday is listed as “Yesterday”.
3. All days after that are listed by M/D/Y.

Has anyone adapted this php.net script to do this or might share a different script that accomplishes the same goal?

<?php 

  function nicetime($date)
 {
    if(empty($date)) {
      return "No date provided";
    }

$periods         = array("second", "minute", "hour", "day", "week", "month", "year", "decade");
$lengths         = array("60","60","24","7","4.35","12","10");

$now             = time();
$unix_date         = strtotime($date);

   // check validity of date
if(empty($unix_date)) {    
    return "Bad date";
}

// is it future date or past date
if($now > $unix_date) {    
    $difference     = $now - $unix_date;
    $tense         = "ago";

} else {
    $difference     = $unix_date - $now;
    $tense         = "from now";
}

for($j = 0; $difference >= $lengths[$j] && $j < count($lengths)-1; $j++) {
    $difference /= $lengths[$j];
}

$difference = round($difference);

if($difference != 1) {
    $periods[$j].= "s";
}

  return "$difference $periods[$j] {$tense}";
}

$date = "2009-03-04 17:45";
$result = nicetime($date); // 2 days ago

?>

Answer 1

Ok, i answered my own question.

The key is to track how many rounds of division the for loop goes through until the quotient of the current time minus the input time, $difference, divided by $jth value of the $lengths array item is less than the $j+1th value of this array.

I track this by incrementing the variable $i (notice the if/elseif/else clause demonstrating each of the 3 points I mention above) in this modified version of nicetime():

     ///http://php.net/manual/en/function.time.php
  function nicetime($date)
 {
    if(empty($date)) {
      return "No date provided";
    }

$periods         = array("second", "minute", "hour", "day", "week", "month", "year", "decade");
$lengths         = array("60","60","24","7","4.35","12","10");

$now             = time();
$unix_date         = strtotime($date);

   // check validity of date
if(empty($unix_date)) {    
    return "Bad date";
}

// is it future date or past date
if($now > $unix_date) {    
    $difference     = $now - $unix_date;
    $tense         = "ago";

} else {
    $difference     = $unix_date - $now;
    $tense         = "from now";
}
$i=0;
for($j = 0; $difference >= $lengths[$j] && $j < count($lengths)-1; $j++) {
    $i++;
    $difference /= $lengths[$j];
}

$difference = round($difference);

if($difference != 1) {
    $periods[$j].= "s";
}

if($i<3){
    $day="$difference $periods[$j] {$tense}";
    return $day;
    //satisfies case #1 where time is listed as seconds, minutes, hours ago
}

elseif($i==3){
    $difference == 1 && $periods[$j]=='day' ? $day='yesterday':     
    $day="$difference $periods[$j] {$tense}";
    return $day;        
    //satisfies case #2 where time is listed as yesterday if not the current day

}
else{
    return $date;       
    // satisfies case #3 where date is listed as M/D/Y if greater than a week old
}   

}

echo "case#1: ".nicetime('2012-08-13 23:12:16');
echo "case#2: ".nicetime('2012-08-12 23:12:16');
echo "case#3: ".nicetime('2012-07-07 23:12:16');