How Can I Generate Relative Date/Time Strings from Timestamps in PHP?

PHP: Generating Relative Date/Times from Timestamps

In PHP, converting a timestamp to a relative date/time string that accurately represents time differences for both past and future timestamps can be a challenging task.

Relative Date/Time Format

The desired format of the relative date/time string should include:

• Past dates: "x weeks ago", "y days ago", etc.
• Future dates: "in x minutes", "after y days", etc.
• Present tense (for negligibly small differences): "now" or "just now"

Solution

The following function, time2str, efficiently generates relative date/time strings:

function time2str($ts)
{
    // Convert to timestamp if not already
    if (!ctype_digit($ts)) {
        $ts = strtotime($ts);
    }

    // Calculate difference between current time and timestamp
    $diff = time() - $ts;

    // Past Timestamps
    if ($diff > 0) {
        $day_diff = floor($diff / 86400);
        switch ($day_diff) {
            case 0:
                if ($diff <p><strong>Usage Example</strong></p><pre class="brush:php;toolbar:false">echo time2str('2023-09-20 10:00:00'); // Output: "in 27 days"
echo time2str('2022-09-20 10:00:00'); // Output: "last year"
echo time2str('2022-09-20T10:00:00+00:00'); // Output: "last year"

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