humanized interval formatter that works with both past and future times

gistfile1.py

# Adapted from https://github.com/jtushman/human_dates

from datetime import datetime
from django.template.defaultfilters import pluralize

def prettyinterval(time=None):
  """
  Take a datetime object and return a pretty string like 'in an hour',
  'tomorrow', 'in 3 months', 'just now', etc
  """
  now = datetime.utcnow()
  past = True
  diff = now - time
  if diff.days < 0:
    past = False
    diff = time - now
  format = '%s ago' if past else 'in %s'

  second_diff = diff.seconds
  day_diff = diff.days

  txt = ''
  if day_diff == 0:
    if second_diff < 10 and past:
      return 'just now'
    elif second_diff < 60:
      txt = '%s second%s' % (second_diff, pluralize(second_diff))
    elif second_diff < 120:
      txt = 'a minute'
    elif second_diff < 3600:
      txt = '%s minute%s' % (second_diff/60, pluralize(second_diff/60))
    elif second_diff < 7200:
      txt = 'an hour'
    elif second_diff < 86400:
      txt = '%s hour%s' % (second_diff/3600, pluralize(second_diff/3600))
  elif day_diff == 1:
    return 'yesterday' if past else 'tomorrow'
  elif day_diff < 7:
    txt = '%s days' % day_diff
  elif day_diff < 31:
    txt = '%s week%s' % (day_diff/7, pluralize(day_diff/7))
  elif day_diff < 365:
    txt = '%s month%s' % (day_diff/30, pluralize(day_diff/30))
  else:
    txt = '%s year%s' % (day_diff/365, pluralize(day_diff/365))
  return format % txt