php function to convert Unix timestamp into minutes or hours or days like digg?

Question

i want a php function to convert a unix time stamp to like this:

15 seconds

or

45 minutes

or

3 hours

and not like this : 2sec

Answer 1

If this is for a website, you might consider Timeago. Otherwise the algorithm is pretty straightforward. Something like:

$diff = $date - $now;
if ($diff > 2 * ONE_YEAR)
    return sprintf("%d years", round($diff / ONE_YEAR));
else if ($diff > ONE_YEAR)
    return "1 year";
else if ($diff > 2 * ONE_MONTH)
    return sprintf("%d months", round($diff / ONE_MONTH));
...etc...