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@chrisveness
Last active August 29, 2015 14:02
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Describe how long ago something happened in the past
<?php
/**
* Returns how long ago something happened in the past, showing it as
* 'n' seconds / minutes / hours / days / weeks / months / years ago.
*
* For periods over a day, it rolls over at midnight (so doesn't depend on
* current time of day), and it correctly accounts for month-lengths and
* leap-years (months and years rollover on current day of month).
*
* $param string $timestamp Timestamp of past event in DateTime format.
* $return string Description of interval since timestamp.
*/
function ago($timestamp)
{
$then = date_create($timestamp);
// for anything over 1 day, make it rollover on midnight
$today = date_create('tomorrow'); // ie end of today
$diff = date_diff($then, $today);
if ($diff->y > 0) return $diff->y.' year'.($diff->y>1?'s':'').' ago';
if ($diff->m > 0) return $diff->m.' month'.($diff->m>1?'s':'').' ago';
$diffW = floor($diff->d / 7);
if ($diffW > 0) return $diffW.' week'.($diffW>1?'s':'').' ago';
if ($diff->d > 1) return $diff->d.' day'.($diff->d>1?'s':'').' ago';
// for anything less than 1 day, base it off 'now'
$now = date_create();
$diff = date_diff($then, $now);
if ($diff->d > 0) return 'yesterday';
if ($diff->h > 0) return $diff->h.' hour'.($diff->h>1?'s':'').' ago';
if ($diff->i > 0) return $diff->i.' minute'.($diff->i>1?'s':'').' ago';
return $diff->s.' second'.($diff->s==1?'':'s').' ago';
}
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