How Can I Generate Human-Readable Relative Dates and Times from Unix Timestamps in PHP?

PHP: Generating Relative Date/Time from Timestamps

In PHP, converting Unix timestamps to human-readable relative date/time strings is a common task. However, creating a flexible script to handle both past and future conversions can be challenging.

The following function, time2str, addresses this need by converting timestamps to relative date/time strings like "2 weeks ago" or "after 10 minutes and 15 seconds."

function time2str($ts)
{
    // Convert string timestamp to integer
    if (!ctype_digit($ts)) {
        $ts = strtotime($ts);
    }

    $diff = time() - $ts;

    // Handle present, past, and future conversions
    if ($diff == 0) {
        return 'now';
    } elseif ($diff > 0) {
        // Past: "X days/weeks/months ago"
        $day_diff = floor($diff / 86400);
        switch ($day_diff) {
            case 0:
                return relativeMinutes($diff);
            case 1:
                return 'Yesterday';
            case $day_diff < 7:
                return "$day_diff days ago";
            case $day_diff < 31:
                return ceil($day_diff / 7) . ' weeks ago';
            case $day_diff < 60:
                return 'last month';
            default:
                return date('F Y', $ts);
        }
    } else {
        // Future: "after X days/weeks/months"
        $diff = abs($diff);
        $day_diff = floor($diff / 86400);
        switch ($day_diff) {
            case 0:
                return relativeMinutes($diff, true);
            case 1:
                return 'Tomorrow';
            case $day_diff < 4:
                return date('l', $ts);
            case $day_diff < 7 + (7 - date('w')) :
                return 'next week';
            case ceil($day_diff / 7) < 4:
                return 'in ' . ceil($day_diff / 7) . ' weeks';
            case date('n', $ts) == date('n') + 1:
                return 'next month';
            default:
                return date('F Y', $ts);
        }
    }
}

// Helper to generate relative minute/second strings
function relativeMinutes($diff, $future = false)
{
    if ($diff < 60) {
        return 'just now';
    } else if ($diff < 120) {
        return '1 minute' . (($future) ? ' ago' : '');
    } else {
        return floor($diff / 60) . ' minutes' . (($future) ? ' ago' : '');
    }
}

This function handles edge cases such as "just now" and "in 1 minute." It also provides different relative strings for past and future dates, making it flexible for use in various applications.

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