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@ozh
Created December 29, 2013 10:40
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Human readable time difference between 2 dates in PHP
<?php
/**
* Get human readable time difference between 2 dates
*
* Return difference between 2 dates in year, month, hour, minute or second
* The $precision caps the number of time units used: for instance if
* $time1 - $time2 = 3 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes, 5 seconds
* - with precision = 1 : 3 days
* - with precision = 2 : 3 days, 4 hours
* - with precision = 3 : 3 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes
*
* From: http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2010/php-calculate-real-differences-between-two-dates-or-timestamps/
*
* @param mixed $time1 a time (string or timestamp)
* @param mixed $time2 a time (string or timestamp)
* @param integer $precision Optional precision
* @return string time difference
*/
function get_date_diff( $time1, $time2, $precision = 2 ) {
// If not numeric then convert timestamps
if( !is_int( $time1 ) ) {
$time1 = strtotime( $time1 );
}
if( !is_int( $time2 ) ) {
$time2 = strtotime( $time2 );
}
// If time1 > time2 then swap the 2 values
if( $time1 > $time2 ) {
list( $time1, $time2 ) = array( $time2, $time1 );
}
// Set up intervals and diffs arrays
$intervals = array( 'year', 'month', 'day', 'hour', 'minute', 'second' );
$diffs = array();
foreach( $intervals as $interval ) {
// Create temp time from time1 and interval
$ttime = strtotime( '+1 ' . $interval, $time1 );
// Set initial values
$add = 1;
$looped = 0;
// Loop until temp time is smaller than time2
while ( $time2 >= $ttime ) {
// Create new temp time from time1 and interval
$add++;
$ttime = strtotime( "+" . $add . " " . $interval, $time1 );
$looped++;
}
$time1 = strtotime( "+" . $looped . " " . $interval, $time1 );
$diffs[ $interval ] = $looped;
}
$count = 0;
$times = array();
foreach( $diffs as $interval => $value ) {
// Break if we have needed precission
if( $count >= $precision ) {
break;
}
// Add value and interval if value is bigger than 0
if( $value > 0 ) {
if( $value != 1 ){
$interval .= "s";
}
// Add value and interval to times array
$times[] = $value . " " . $interval;
$count++;
}
}
// Return string with times
return implode( ", ", $times );
}
/**
Usage:
$t = '2013-12-29T00:43:11+00:00';
$t2 = '2013-11-24 19:53:04 +0100';
var_dump( get_date_diff( $t, $t2, 1 ) ); // string '1 month' (length=7)
var_dump( get_date_diff( $t, $t2, 2 ) ); // string '1 month, 4 days' (length=15)
var_dump( get_date_diff( $t, $t2, 3 ) ); // string '1 month, 4 days, 5 hours' (length=24)
*/
@otimsamuel
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Very helpful, thanks a lot.

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