Calculate relative time in C#

Question

Given a specific DateTime value, how do I display relative time, like:

• 2 hours ago
• 3 days ago
• a month ago

Answer 1

This is a C# extension for '... ago' and '... left' scenarios:

public static class DateTimeExtensions
{
    public static string? ToAgoOrLeftText(this DateTime? moment, DateTime? to, string ago = "ago", string left = "left")
    {
        return moment?.ToAgoOrLeftText(to, ago, left);
    }

    public static string? ToAgoOrLeftText(this DateTime moment, DateTime? to, string ago = "ago", string left = "left")
    {
        if (!to.HasValue) return null;

        const int second = 1;
        const int minute = 60 * second;
        const int hour = 60 * minute;
        const int day = 24 * hour;
        const int month = 30 * day;

        var past = to.Value < moment;
        var when = past ? ago : left;

        var ts = new TimeSpan(moment.Ticks - to.Value.Ticks);
        double deltaInSeconds = Math.Abs(ts.TotalSeconds);

        int seconds = Math.Abs(ts.Seconds);
        int minutes = Math.Abs(ts.Minutes);
        int hours = Math.Abs(ts.Hours);
        int days = Math.Abs(ts.Days);
        int months =  Math.Abs(Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 30)));
        int years = Math.Abs(Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 365)));

        return deltaInSeconds switch
        {
            < 1 * minute => seconds == 0 ? "now" : seconds == 1 ? $"one second {when}" : $"{seconds} seconds {when}",
            < 2 * minute => $"a minute {when}",
            < 45 * minute => $"{minutes} minutes {when}",
            < 90 * minute => $"an hour {when}",
            < 24 * hour => $"{hours} hours {when}",
            < 48 * hour => past ? "yesterday" : $"a day {left}",
            < 30 * day => $"{days} days {when}",
            < 12 * month => months <= 1 ? $"one month {when}" : $"{months} months {when}",
            _ => years <= 1 ? $"one year {when}" : $"{years} years {when}"
        };
    }
}

And the test to demo:

public class DateTimeExtensionsTests
{
    [Fact]
    public void ToAgoOrLeftTextTest()
    {
        var moment = new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 30, 00);

        Assert.Equal("now", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(moment));

        Assert.Equal("one second left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 30, 01)));
        Assert.Equal("one second ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 29, 59)));

        Assert.Equal("25 seconds left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 30, 25)));
        Assert.Equal("23 seconds ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 29, 37)));

        Assert.Equal("a minute left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 31, 01)));
        Assert.Equal("a minute ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 28, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("7 minutes left to claim", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 37, 01), left: "left to claim"));
        Assert.Equal("4 minutes since that happen", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 25, 30), ago: "since that happen"));

        Assert.Equal("an hour left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 16, 45, 25)));
        Assert.Equal("an hour ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 14, 02, 59)));

        Assert.Equal("2 hours left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 18, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("5 hours ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 10, 02, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("yesterday", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 27, 14, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("a day left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 30, 10, 02, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("29 days ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 10, 30, 14, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("16 days left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 12, 15, 10, 02, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("one month ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 10, 26, 14, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("one month left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 12, 29, 10, 02, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("5 months ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 6, 30, 14, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("6 months left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2024, 05, 15, 10, 02, 30)));

        Assert.Equal("23 years ago", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2000, 6, 30, 14, 15, 00)));
        Assert.Equal("12 years left", moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2035, 05, 15, 10, 02, 30)));
    }

    [Fact]
    public void ToAgoOrLeftTextNullableTest()
    {
        DateTime? moment = new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 30, 00);

        Assert.Null(moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(null));
        Assert.Null(moment.Value.ToAgoOrLeftText(null));

        moment = null;

        Assert.Null(moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(new DateTime(2023, 11, 28, 15, 29, 59)));
        Assert.Null(moment.ToAgoOrLeftText(null));
    }
}

Answer 2

The accepted answer by Vincent makes quite a few arbitrary decisions. Why is 45 minutes rounded up to an hour while 45 seconds is not rounded up to a minute? It has an increased level of cyclomatic complexity within the years and month calculations that makes it more complex to follow the logic. It makes the assumption that the TimeSpan is relative to the past (2 days ago) when it could very well be in the future (2 days until). It defines unnecessary constants instead of using TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond etc.

This implementation resolves the above and updates the syntax to use switch expressions and relational patterns

/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="TimeSpan"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10).ToNaturalLanguage();
/// // 10 seconds
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this TimeSpan @this)
{
    const int daysInWeek = 7;
    const int daysInMonth = 30;
    const int daysInYear = 365;
    const long threshold = 100 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond;
    @this = @this.TotalSeconds < 0
        ? TimeSpan.FromSeconds(@this.TotalSeconds * -1)
        : @this;
    return (@this.Ticks + threshold) switch
    {
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond => "a second",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => @this.Seconds + " seconds",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => "a minute",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => @this.Minutes + " minutes",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => "an hour",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Hours + " hours",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a day",
        < 1 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Days + " days",
        < 2 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a week",
        < 1 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInWeek).ToString("F0") + " weeks",
        < 2 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a month",
        < 1 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInMonth).ToString("F0") + " months",
        < 2 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a year",
        _ => (@this.Days / daysInYear).ToString("F0") + " years"
    };
}

/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="DateTime"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// (DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)).ToNaturalLanguage()
/// // 10 seconds ago
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this DateTime @this)
{
    TimeSpan timeSpan = @this - DateTime.Now;
    return timeSpan.TotalSeconds switch
    {
        >= 1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " until",
        <= -1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " ago",
        _ => "now",
    };
}

You can test it with NUnit as follows:

[TestCase("a second", 0)]
[TestCase("a second", 1)]
[TestCase("2 seconds", 2)]
[TestCase("a minute", 0, 1)]
[TestCase("5 minutes", 0, 5)]
[TestCase("an hour", 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("2 hours", 0, 0, 2)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 24)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("6 days", 0, 0, 0, 6)]
[TestCase("a week", 0, 0, 0, 7)]
[TestCase("4 weeks", 0, 0, 0, 29)]
[TestCase("a month", 0, 0, 0, 30)]
[TestCase("6 months", 0, 0, 0, 6 * 30)]
[TestCase("a year", 0, 0, 0, 365)]
[TestCase("68 years", int.MaxValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_TimeSpan(
    string expected,
    int seconds,
    int minutes = 0,
    int hours = 0,
    int days = 0
)
{
    // Arrange
    TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);

    // Act
    string result = timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage();

    // Assert
    Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}

[TestCase("now", 0)]
[TestCase("10 minutes ago", 0, -10)]
[TestCase("10 minutes until", 10, 10)]
[TestCase("68 years until", int.MaxValue)]
[TestCase("68 years ago", int.MinValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_DateTime(
    string expected,
    int seconds,
    int minutes = 0,
    int hours = 0,
    int days = 0
)
{
    // Arrange
    TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);
    DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
    DateTime dateTime = now + timeSpan;

    // Act
    string result = dateTime.ToNaturalLanguage();

    // Assert
    Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}

Or as a gist: https://gist.github.com/StudioLE/2dd394e3f792e79adc927ede274df56e

Answer 3

Simple and 100% working solution.

Handling ago and future times as well.. just in case

        public string GetTimeSince(DateTime postDate)
    {
        string message = "";
        DateTime currentDate = DateTime.Now;
        TimeSpan timegap = currentDate - postDate;

     
        if (timegap.Days > 365)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Years"), (((timegap.Days) / 30) / 12));                
        }
        else if (timegap.Days > 30)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Months"), timegap.Days/30);                
        }
        else if (timegap.Days > 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Days"), timegap.Days);
        }           
        else if (timegap.Hours > 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Hours"), timegap.Hours);
        }           
        else if (timegap.Minutes > 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Minutes"), timegap.Minutes);
        }
        else if (timegap.Seconds > 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("Ago") + " {0} " + L("Seconds"), timegap.Seconds);
        }

        // let's handle future times..just in case       
        else if (timegap.Days < -365)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Years"), (((Math.Abs(timegap.Days)) / 30) / 12));                
        }
        else if (timegap.Days < -30)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Months"), ((Math.Abs(timegap.Days)) / 30));                
        }
        else if (timegap.Days < 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Days"), Math.Abs(timegap.Days));                
        }           
      
        else if (timegap.Hours < 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Hours"), Math.Abs(timegap.Hours));                
        }
        else if (timegap.Minutes < 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Minutes"), Math.Abs(timegap.Minutes));                
        }
        else if (timegap.Seconds < 0)
        {
            message = string.Format(L("In") + " {0} " + L("Seconds"), Math.Abs(timegap.Seconds));                
        }


        else
        {
            message = "a bit";
        }

        return message;
    }

Answer 4

This is my function, works like a charm :)

public static string RelativeDate(DateTime theDate)
{
   var span = DateTime.Now - theDate;
   if (span.Days > 365)
   {
      var years = (span.Days / 365);
      if (span.Days % 365 != 0)
         years += 1;
      return $"about {years} {(years == 1 ? "year" : "years")} ago";
   }
   if (span.Days > 30)
   {
      var months = (span.Days / 30);
      if (span.Days % 31 != 0)
         months += 1;
      return $"about {months} {(months == 1 ? "month" : "months")} ago";
   }
   if (span.Days > 0)
      return $"about {span.Days} {(span.Days == 1 ? "day" : "days")} ago";
   if (span.Hours > 0)
      return $"about {span.Hours} {(span.Hours == 1 ? "hour" : "hours")} ago";
   if (span.Minutes > 0)
      return $"about {span.Minutes} {(span.Minutes == 1 ? "minute" : "minutes")} ago";
   if (span.Seconds > 5)
      return $"about {span.Seconds} seconds ago";

   return span.Seconds <= 5 ? "about 5 seconds ago" : string.Empty;
}

Answer 5

A "one-liner" using deconstruction and Linq to get "n [biggest unit of time] ago" :

TimeSpan timeSpan = DateTime.Now - new DateTime(1234, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9);

(string unit, int value) = new Dictionary<string, int>
{
    {"year(s)", (int)(timeSpan.TotalDays / 365.25)}, //https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year#Intercalation
    {"month(s)", (int)(timeSpan.TotalDays / 29.53)}, //https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Month
    {"day(s)", (int)timeSpan.TotalDays},
    {"hour(s)", (int)timeSpan.TotalHours},
    {"minute(s)", (int)timeSpan.TotalMinutes},
    {"second(s)", (int)timeSpan.TotalSeconds},
    {"millisecond(s)", (int)timeSpan.TotalMilliseconds}
}.First(kvp => kvp.Value > 0);

Console.WriteLine($"{value} {unit} ago");

You get 786 year(s) ago

With the current year and month, like

TimeSpan timeSpan = DateTime.Now - new DateTime(2020, 12, 6, 7, 8, 9);

you get 4 day(s) ago

With the actual date, like

TimeSpan timeSpan = DateTime.Now - DateTime.Now.Date;

you get 9 hour(s) ago

Answer 6

In a way you do your DateTime function over calculating relative time by either seconds to years, try something like this:

using System;

public class Program {
    public static string getRelativeTime(DateTime past) {
        DateTime now = DateTime.Today;
        string rt = "";
        int time;
        string statement = "";
        if (past.Second >= now.Second) {
            if (past.Second - now.Second == 1) {
                rt = "second ago";
            }
            rt = "seconds ago";
            time = past.Second - now.Second;
            statement = "" + time;
            return (statement + rt);
        }
        if (past.Minute >= now.Minute) {
            if (past.Second - now.Second == 1) {
                rt = "second ago";
            } else {
                rt = "minutes ago";
            }
            time = past.Minute - now.Minute;
            statement = "" + time;
            return (statement + rt);
        }
        // This process will go on until years
    }
    public static void Main() {
        DateTime before = new DateTime(1995, 8, 24);
        string date = getRelativeTime(before);
        Console.WriteLine("Windows 95 was {0}.", date);
    }
}

Not exactly working but if you modify and debug it a bit, it will likely do the job.

Answer 7

You can use TimeAgo extension as below:

public static string TimeAgo(this DateTime dateTime)
{
    string result = string.Empty;
    var timeSpan = DateTime.Now.Subtract(dateTime);
 
    if (timeSpan <= TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60))
    {
        result = string.Format("{0} seconds ago", timeSpan.Seconds);
    }
    else if (timeSpan <= TimeSpan.FromMinutes(60))
    {
        result = timeSpan.Minutes > 1 ? 
            String.Format("about {0} minutes ago", timeSpan.Minutes) :
            "about a minute ago";
    }
    else if (timeSpan <= TimeSpan.FromHours(24))
    {
        result = timeSpan.Hours > 1 ? 
            String.Format("about {0} hours ago", timeSpan.Hours) : 
            "about an hour ago";
    }
    else if (timeSpan <= TimeSpan.FromDays(30))
    {
        result = timeSpan.Days > 1 ? 
            String.Format("about {0} days ago", timeSpan.Days) : 
            "yesterday";
    }
    else if (timeSpan <= TimeSpan.FromDays(365))
    {
        result = timeSpan.Days > 30 ? 
            String.Format("about {0} months ago", timeSpan.Days / 30) : 
            "about a month ago";
    }
    else
    {
        result = timeSpan.Days > 365 ? 
            String.Format("about {0} years ago", timeSpan.Days / 365) : 
            "about a year ago";
    }
 
    return result;
}

Or use jQuery plugin with Razor extension from Timeago.

Answer 8

@jeff

IMHO yours seems a little long. However it does seem a little more robust with support for "yesterday" and "years". But in my experience when this is used, the person is most likely to view the content in the first 30 days. It is only the really hardcore people that come after that. So, I usually elect to keep this short and simple.

This is the method I am currently using in one of my websites. This returns only a relative day, hour and time. And then the user has to slap on "ago" in the output.

public static string ToLongString(this TimeSpan time)
{
    string output = String.Empty;

    if (time.Days > 0)
        output += time.Days + " days ";

    if ((time.Days == 0 || time.Days == 1) && time.Hours > 0)
        output += time.Hours + " hr ";

    if (time.Days == 0 && time.Minutes > 0)
        output += time.Minutes + " min ";

    if (output.Length == 0)
        output += time.Seconds + " sec";

    return output.Trim();
}

Answer 9

I got this answer from one of Bill Gates' blogs. I need to find it on my browser history and I'll give you the link.

The Javascript code to do the same thing (as requested):

function posted(t) {
    var now = new Date();
    var diff = parseInt((now.getTime() - Date.parse(t)) / 1000);
    if (diff < 60) { return 'less than a minute ago'; }
    else if (diff < 120) { return 'about a minute ago'; }
    else if (diff < (2700)) { return (parseInt(diff / 60)).toString() + ' minutes ago'; }
    else if (diff < (5400)) { return 'about an hour ago'; }
    else if (diff < (86400)) { return 'about ' + (parseInt(diff / 3600)).toString() + ' hours ago'; }
    else if (diff < (172800)) { return '1 day ago'; } 
    else {return (parseInt(diff / 86400)).toString() + ' days ago'; }
}

Basically, you work in terms of seconds.

Answer 10

Here's how I do it

var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - dt.Ticks);
double delta = Math.Abs(ts.TotalSeconds);

if (delta < 60)
{
  return ts.Seconds == 1 ? "one second ago" : ts.Seconds + " seconds ago";
}
if (delta < 60 * 2)
{
  return "a minute ago";
}
if (delta < 45 * 60)
{
  return ts.Minutes + " minutes ago";
}
if (delta < 90 * 60)
{
  return "an hour ago";
}
if (delta < 24 * 60 * 60)
{
  return ts.Hours + " hours ago";
}
if (delta < 48 * 60 * 60)
{
  return "yesterday";
}
if (delta < 30 * 24 * 60 * 60)
{
  return ts.Days + " days ago";
}
if (delta < 12 * 30 * 24 * 60 * 60)
{
  int months = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 30));
  return months <= 1 ? "one month ago" : months + " months ago";
}
int years = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 365));
return years <= 1 ? "one year ago" : years + " years ago";

Suggestions? Comments? Ways to improve this algorithm?

Answer 11

There are also a package called Humanizr on Nuget, and it actually works really well, and is in the .NET Foundation.

DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(-30).Humanize() => "yesterday"
DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(-2).Humanize() => "2 hours ago"

DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(30).Humanize() => "tomorrow"
DateTime.UtcNow.AddHours(2).Humanize() => "2 hours from now"

TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1299630020).Humanize() => "2 weeks"
TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(1299630020).Humanize(3) => "2 weeks, 1 day, 1 hour"

Scott Hanselman has a writeup on it on his blog

Answer 12

// Calculate total days in current year
int daysInYear;

for (var i = 1; i <= 12; i++)
    daysInYear += DateTime.DaysInMonth(DateTime.Now.Year, i);

// Past date
DateTime dateToCompare = DateTime.Now.Subtract(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(582));

// Calculate difference between current date and past date
double diff = (DateTime.Now - dateToCompare).TotalMilliseconds;

TimeSpan ts = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(diff);

var years = ts.TotalDays / daysInYear; // Years
var months = ts.TotalDays / (daysInYear / (double)12); // Months
var weeks = ts.TotalDays / 7; // Weeks
var days = ts.TotalDays; // Days
var hours = ts.TotalHours; // Hours
var minutes = ts.TotalMinutes; // Minutes
var seconds = ts.TotalSeconds; // Seconds

if (years >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(years, 0) + " year(s) ago");
else if (months >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(months, 0) + " month(s) ago");
else if (weeks >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(weeks, 0) + " week(s) ago");
else if (days >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(days, 0) + " days(s) ago");
else if (hours >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(hours, 0) + " hour(s) ago");
else if (minutes >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(minutes, 0) + " minute(s) ago");
else if (seconds >= 1)
    Console.WriteLine(Math.Round(seconds, 0) + " second(s) ago");

Console.ReadLine();

Answer 13

Turkish localized version of Vincents answer.

    const int SECOND = 1;
    const int MINUTE = 60 * SECOND;
    const int HOUR = 60 * MINUTE;
    const int DAY = 24 * HOUR;
    const int MONTH = 30 * DAY;

    var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - yourDate.Ticks);
    double delta = Math.Abs(ts.TotalSeconds);

    if (delta < 1 * MINUTE)
        return ts.Seconds + " saniye önce";

    if (delta < 45 * MINUTE)
        return ts.Minutes + " dakika önce";

    if (delta < 24 * HOUR)
        return ts.Hours + " saat önce";

    if (delta < 48 * HOUR)
        return "dün";

    if (delta < 30 * DAY)
        return ts.Days + " gün önce";

    if (delta < 12 * MONTH)
    {
        int months = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 30));
        return months + " ay önce";
    }
    else
    {
        int years = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 365));
        return years + " yıl önce";
    }

Answer 14

@Jeff

var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - dt.Ticks);

Doing a subtraction on DateTime returns a TimeSpan anyway.

So you can just do

(DateTime.UtcNow - dt).TotalSeconds

I'm also surprised to see the constants multiplied-out by hand and then comments added with the multiplications in. Was that some misguided optimisation?

Answer 15

iPhone Objective-C Version

+ (NSString *)timeAgoString:(NSDate *)date {
    int delta = -(int)[date timeIntervalSinceNow];

    if (delta < 60)
    {
        return delta == 1 ? @"one second ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i seconds ago", delta];
    }
    if (delta < 120)
    {
        return @"a minute ago";
    }
    if (delta < 2700)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i minutes ago", delta/60];
    }
    if (delta < 5400)
    {
        return @"an hour ago";
    }
    if (delta < 24 * 3600)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i hours ago", delta/3600];
    }
    if (delta < 48 * 3600)
    {
        return @"yesterday";
    }
    if (delta < 30 * 24 * 3600)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i days ago", delta/(24*3600)];
    }
    if (delta < 12 * 30 * 24 * 3600)
    {
        int months = delta/(30*24*3600);
        return months <= 1 ? @"one month ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i months ago", months];
    }
    else
    {
        int years = delta/(12*30*24*3600);
        return years <= 1 ? @"one year ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i years ago", years];
    }
}

Answer 16

If you want to have an output like "2 days, 4 hours and 12 minutes ago", you need a timespan:

TimeSpan timeDiff = DateTime.Now-CreatedDate;

Then you can access the values you like:

timeDiff.Days
timeDiff.Hours

etc...

Answer 17

var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.Now.Ticks - dt.Ticks);

Answer 18

I think there is already a number of answers related to this post, but one can use this which is easy to use just like plugin and also easily readable for programmers. Send your specific date, and get its value in string form:

public string RelativeDateTimeCount(DateTime inputDateTime)
{
    string outputDateTime = string.Empty;
    TimeSpan ts = DateTime.Now - inputDateTime;

    if (ts.Days > 7)
    { outputDateTime = inputDateTime.ToString("MMMM d, yyyy"); }

    else if (ts.Days > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Days == 1 ? ("about 1 Day ago") : ("about " + ts.Days.ToString() + " Days ago");
    }
    else if (ts.Hours > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Hours == 1 ? ("an hour ago") : (ts.Hours.ToString() + " hours ago");
    }
    else if (ts.Minutes > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Minutes == 1 ? ("1 minute ago") : (ts.Minutes.ToString() + " minutes ago");
    }
    else outputDateTime = "few seconds ago";

    return outputDateTime;
}

Answer 19

You can reduce the server-side load by performing this logic client-side. View source on some Digg pages for reference. They have the server emit an epoch time value that gets processed by Javascript. This way you don't need to manage the end user's time zone. The new server-side code would be something like:

public string GetRelativeTime(DateTime timeStamp)
{
    return string.Format("<script>printdate({0});</script>", timeStamp.ToFileTimeUtc());
}

You could even add a NOSCRIPT block there and just perform a ToString().

Answer 20

using Fluent DateTime

var dateTime1 = 2.Hours().Ago();
var dateTime2 = 3.Days().Ago();
var dateTime3 = 1.Months().Ago();
var dateTime4 = 5.Hours().FromNow();
var dateTime5 = 2.Weeks().FromNow();
var dateTime6 = 40.Seconds().FromNow();

Answer 21

jquery.timeago plugin

Jeff, because Stack Overflow uses jQuery extensively, I recommend the jquery.timeago plugin.

Benefits:

• Avoid timestamps dated "1 minute ago" even though the page was opened 10 minutes ago; timeago refreshes automatically.
• You can take full advantage of page and/or fragment caching in your web applications, because the timestamps aren't calculated on the server.
• You get to use microformats like the cool kids.

Just attach it to your timestamps on DOM ready:

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
    jQuery('abbr.timeago').timeago();
});

This will turn all abbr elements with a class of timeago and an ISO 8601 timestamp in the title:

<abbr class="timeago" title="2008-07-17T09:24:17Z">July 17, 2008</abbr>

into something like this:

<abbr class="timeago" title="July 17, 2008">4 months ago</abbr>

which yields: 4 months ago. As time passes, the timestamps will automatically update.

Disclaimer: I wrote this plugin, so I'm biased.

Answer 22

My way is much more simpler. You can tweak with the return strings as you want

    public static string TimeLeft(DateTime utcDate)
    {
        TimeSpan timeLeft = DateTime.UtcNow - utcDate;
        string timeLeftString = "";
        if (timeLeft.Days > 0)
        {
            timeLeftString += timeLeft.Days == 1 ? timeLeft.Days + " day" : timeLeft.Days + " days";
        }
        else if (timeLeft.Hours > 0)
        {
            timeLeftString += timeLeft.Hours == 1 ? timeLeft.Hours + " hour" : timeLeft.Hours + " hours";
        }
        else
        {
            timeLeftString += timeLeft.Minutes == 1 ? timeLeft.Minutes+" minute" : timeLeft.Minutes + " minutes";
        }
        return timeLeftString;
    }

Answer 23

Given the world and her husband appear to be posting code samples, here is what I wrote a while ago, based on a couple of these answers.

I had a specific need for this code to be localisable. So I have two classes — Grammar, which specifies the localisable terms, and FuzzyDateExtensions, which holds a bunch of extension methods. I had no need to deal with future datetimes, so no attempt is made to handle them with this code.

I've left some of the XMLdoc in the source, but removed most (where they'd be obvious) for brevity's sake. I've also not included every class member here:

public class Grammar
{
    /// <summary> Gets or sets the term for "just now". </summary>
    public string JustNow { get; set; }
    /// <summary> Gets or sets the term for "X minutes ago". </summary>
    /// <remarks>
    ///     This is a <see cref="String.Format"/> pattern, where <c>{0}</c>
    ///     is the number of minutes.
    /// </remarks>
    public string MinutesAgo { get; set; }
    public string OneHourAgo { get; set; }
    public string HoursAgo { get; set; }
    public string Yesterday { get; set; }
    public string DaysAgo { get; set; }
    public string LastMonth { get; set; }
    public string MonthsAgo { get; set; }
    public string LastYear { get; set; }
    public string YearsAgo { get; set; }
    /// <summary> Gets or sets the term for "ages ago". </summary>
    public string AgesAgo { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Gets or sets the threshold beyond which the fuzzy date should be
    ///     considered "ages ago".
    /// </summary>
    public TimeSpan AgesAgoThreshold { get; set; }

    /// <summary>
    ///     Initialises a new <see cref="Grammar"/> instance with the
    ///     specified properties.
    /// </summary>
    private void Initialise(string justNow, string minutesAgo,
        string oneHourAgo, string hoursAgo, string yesterday, string daysAgo,
        string lastMonth, string monthsAgo, string lastYear, string yearsAgo,
        string agesAgo, TimeSpan agesAgoThreshold)
    { ... }
}

The FuzzyDateString class contains:

public static class FuzzyDateExtensions
{
    public static string ToFuzzyDateString(this TimeSpan timespan)
    {
        return timespan.ToFuzzyDateString(new Grammar());
    }

    public static string ToFuzzyDateString(this TimeSpan timespan,
        Grammar grammar)
    {
        return GetFuzzyDateString(timespan, grammar);
    }

    public static string ToFuzzyDateString(this DateTime datetime)
    {
        return (DateTime.Now - datetime).ToFuzzyDateString();
    }

    public static string ToFuzzyDateString(this DateTime datetime,
       Grammar grammar)
    {
        return (DateTime.Now - datetime).ToFuzzyDateString(grammar);
    }


    private static string GetFuzzyDateString(TimeSpan timespan,
       Grammar grammar)
    {
        timespan = timespan.Duration();

        if (timespan >= grammar.AgesAgoThreshold)
        {
            return grammar.AgesAgo;
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(0, 2, 0))    // 2 minutes
        {
            return grammar.JustNow;
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(1, 0, 0))    // 1 hour
        {
            return String.Format(grammar.MinutesAgo, timespan.Minutes);
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(1, 55, 0))    // 1 hour 55 minutes
        {
            return grammar.OneHourAgo;
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(12, 0, 0)    // 12 hours
            && (DateTime.Now - timespan).IsToday())
        {
            return String.Format(grammar.HoursAgo, timespan.RoundedHours());
        }

        if ((DateTime.Now.AddDays(1) - timespan).IsToday())
        {
            return grammar.Yesterday;
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(32, 0, 0, 0)    // 32 days
            && (DateTime.Now - timespan).IsThisMonth())
        {
            return String.Format(grammar.DaysAgo, timespan.RoundedDays());
        }

        if ((DateTime.Now.AddMonths(1) - timespan).IsThisMonth())
        {
            return grammar.LastMonth;
        }

        if (timespan < new TimeSpan(365, 0, 0, 0, 0)    // 365 days
            && (DateTime.Now - timespan).IsThisYear())
        {
            return String.Format(grammar.MonthsAgo, timespan.RoundedMonths());
        }

        if ((DateTime.Now - timespan).AddYears(1).IsThisYear())
        {
            return grammar.LastYear;
        }

        return String.Format(grammar.YearsAgo, timespan.RoundedYears());
    }
}

One of the key things I wanted to achieve, as well as localisation, was that "today" would only mean "this calendar day", so the IsToday, IsThisMonth, IsThisYear methods look like this:

public static bool IsToday(this DateTime date)
{
    return date.DayOfYear == DateTime.Now.DayOfYear && date.IsThisYear();
}

and the rounding methods are like this (I've included RoundedMonths, as that's a bit different):

public static int RoundedDays(this TimeSpan timespan)
{
    return (timespan.Hours > 12) ? timespan.Days + 1 : timespan.Days;
}

public static int RoundedMonths(this TimeSpan timespan)
{
    DateTime then = DateTime.Now - timespan;

    // Number of partial months elapsed since 1 Jan, AD 1 (DateTime.MinValue)
    int nowMonthYears = DateTime.Now.Year * 12 + DateTime.Now.Month;
    int thenMonthYears = then.Year * 12 + then.Month;                    

    return nowMonthYears - thenMonthYears;
}

I hope people find this useful and/or interesting :o)

Answer 24

Surely an easy fix to get rid of the '1 hours ago' problem would be to increase the window that 'an hour ago' is valid for. Change

if (delta < 5400) // 90 * 60
{
    return "an hour ago";
}

into

if (delta < 7200) // 120 * 60
{
    return "an hour ago";
}

This means that something that occurred 110 minutes ago will read as 'an hour ago' - this may not be perfect, but I'd say it is better than the current situation of '1 hours ago'.

Answer 25

public static string RelativeDate(DateTime theDate)
{
    Dictionary<long, string> thresholds = new Dictionary<long, string>();
    int minute = 60;
    int hour = 60 * minute;
    int day = 24 * hour;
    thresholds.Add(60, "{0} seconds ago");
    thresholds.Add(minute * 2, "a minute ago");
    thresholds.Add(45 * minute, "{0} minutes ago");
    thresholds.Add(120 * minute, "an hour ago");
    thresholds.Add(day, "{0} hours ago");
    thresholds.Add(day * 2, "yesterday");
    thresholds.Add(day * 30, "{0} days ago");
    thresholds.Add(day * 365, "{0} months ago");
    thresholds.Add(long.MaxValue, "{0} years ago");
    long since = (DateTime.Now.Ticks - theDate.Ticks) / 10000000;
    foreach (long threshold in thresholds.Keys) 
    {
        if (since < threshold) 
        {
            TimeSpan t = new TimeSpan((DateTime.Now.Ticks - theDate.Ticks));
            return string.Format(thresholds[threshold], (t.Days > 365 ? t.Days / 365 : (t.Days > 0 ? t.Days : (t.Hours > 0 ? t.Hours : (t.Minutes > 0 ? t.Minutes : (t.Seconds > 0 ? t.Seconds : 0))))).ToString());
        }
    }
    return "";
}

I prefer this version for its conciseness, and ability to add in new tick points. This could be encapsulated with a Latest() extension to Timespan instead of that long 1 liner, but for the sake of brevity in posting, this will do. This fixes the an hour ago, 1 hours ago, by providing an hour until 2 hours have elapsed

Answer 26

public static string ToRelativeDate(DateTime input)
{
    TimeSpan oSpan = DateTime.Now.Subtract(input);
    double TotalMinutes = oSpan.TotalMinutes;
    string Suffix = " ago";

    if (TotalMinutes < 0.0)
    {
        TotalMinutes = Math.Abs(TotalMinutes);
        Suffix = " from now";
    }

    var aValue = new SortedList<double, Func<string>>();
    aValue.Add(0.75, () => "less than a minute");
    aValue.Add(1.5, () => "about a minute");
    aValue.Add(45, () => string.Format("{0} minutes", Math.Round(TotalMinutes)));
    aValue.Add(90, () => "about an hour");
    aValue.Add(1440, () => string.Format("about {0} hours", Math.Round(Math.Abs(oSpan.TotalHours)))); // 60 * 24
    aValue.Add(2880, () => "a day"); // 60 * 48
    aValue.Add(43200, () => string.Format("{0} days", Math.Floor(Math.Abs(oSpan.TotalDays)))); // 60 * 24 * 30
    aValue.Add(86400, () => "about a month"); // 60 * 24 * 60
    aValue.Add(525600, () => string.Format("{0} months", Math.Floor(Math.Abs(oSpan.TotalDays / 30)))); // 60 * 24 * 365 
    aValue.Add(1051200, () => "about a year"); // 60 * 24 * 365 * 2
    aValue.Add(double.MaxValue, () => string.Format("{0} years", Math.Floor(Math.Abs(oSpan.TotalDays / 365))));

    return aValue.First(n => TotalMinutes < n.Key).Value.Invoke() + Suffix;
}

http://refactormycode.com/codes/493-twitter-esque-relative-dates

C# 6 version:

static readonly SortedList<double, Func<TimeSpan, string>> offsets = 
   new SortedList<double, Func<TimeSpan, string>>
{
    { 0.75, _ => "less than a minute"},
    { 1.5, _ => "about a minute"},
    { 45, x => $"{x.TotalMinutes:F0} minutes"},
    { 90, x => "about an hour"},
    { 1440, x => $"about {x.TotalHours:F0} hours"},
    { 2880, x => "a day"},
    { 43200, x => $"{x.TotalDays:F0} days"},
    { 86400, x => "about a month"},
    { 525600, x => $"{x.TotalDays / 30:F0} months"},
    { 1051200, x => "about a year"},
    { double.MaxValue, x => $"{x.TotalDays / 365:F0} years"}
};

public static string ToRelativeDate(this DateTime input)
{
    TimeSpan x = DateTime.Now - input;
    string Suffix = x.TotalMinutes > 0 ? " ago" : " from now";
    x = new TimeSpan(Math.Abs(x.Ticks));
    return offsets.First(n => x.TotalMinutes < n.Key).Value(x) + Suffix;
}

Answer 27

Jeff, your code is nice but could be clearer with constants (as suggested in Code Complete).

const int SECOND = 1;
const int MINUTE = 60 * SECOND;
const int HOUR = 60 * MINUTE;
const int DAY = 24 * HOUR;
const int MONTH = 30 * DAY;

var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - yourDate.Ticks);
double delta = Math.Abs(ts.TotalSeconds);

if (delta < 1 * MINUTE)
  return ts.Seconds == 1 ? "one second ago" : ts.Seconds + " seconds ago";

if (delta < 2 * MINUTE)
  return "a minute ago";

if (delta < 45 * MINUTE)
  return ts.Minutes + " minutes ago";

if (delta < 90 * MINUTE)
  return "an hour ago";

if (delta < 24 * HOUR)
  return ts.Hours + " hours ago";

if (delta < 48 * HOUR)
  return "yesterday";

if (delta < 30 * DAY)
  return ts.Days + " days ago";

if (delta < 12 * MONTH)
{
  int months = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 30));
  return months <= 1 ? "one month ago" : months + " months ago";
}
else
{
  int years = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 365));
  return years <= 1 ? "one year ago" : years + " years ago";
}

Answer 28

/** 
 * {@code date1} has to be earlier than {@code date2}.
 */
public static String relativize(Date date1, Date date2) {
    assert date2.getTime() >= date1.getTime();

    long duration = date2.getTime() - date1.getTime();
    long converted;

    if ((converted = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toDays(duration)) > 0) {
        return String.format("%d %s ago", converted, converted == 1 ? "day" : "days");
    } else if ((converted = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toHours(duration)) > 0) {
        return String.format("%d %s ago", converted, converted == 1 ? "hour" : "hours");
    } else if ((converted = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toMinutes(duration)) > 0) {
        return String.format("%d %s ago", converted, converted == 1 ? "minute" : "minutes");
    } else if ((converted = TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS.toSeconds(duration)) > 0) {
        return String.format("%d %s ago", converted, converted == 1 ? "second" : "seconds");
    } else {
        return "just now";
    }
}

Answer 29

I would recommend computing this on the client side too. Less work for the server.

The following is the version that I use (from Zach Leatherman)

/*
 * Javascript Humane Dates
 * Copyright (c) 2008 Dean Landolt (deanlandolt.com)
 * Re-write by Zach Leatherman (zachleat.com)
 * 
 * Adopted from the John Resig's pretty.js
 * at http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-pretty-date
 * and henrah's proposed modification 
 * at http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-pretty-date/#comment-297458
 * 
 * Licensed under the MIT license.
 */

function humane_date(date_str){
        var time_formats = [
                [60, 'just now'],
                [90, '1 minute'], // 60*1.5
                [3600, 'minutes', 60], // 60*60, 60
                [5400, '1 hour'], // 60*60*1.5
                [86400, 'hours', 3600], // 60*60*24, 60*60
                [129600, '1 day'], // 60*60*24*1.5
                [604800, 'days', 86400], // 60*60*24*7, 60*60*24
                [907200, '1 week'], // 60*60*24*7*1.5
                [2628000, 'weeks', 604800], // 60*60*24*(365/12), 60*60*24*7
                [3942000, '1 month'], // 60*60*24*(365/12)*1.5
                [31536000, 'months', 2628000], // 60*60*24*365, 60*60*24*(365/12)
                [47304000, '1 year'], // 60*60*24*365*1.5
                [3153600000, 'years', 31536000], // 60*60*24*365*100, 60*60*24*365
                [4730400000, '1 century'] // 60*60*24*365*100*1.5
        ];

        var time = ('' + date_str).replace(/-/g,"/").replace(/[TZ]/g," "),
                dt = new Date,
                seconds = ((dt - new Date(time) + (dt.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000)) / 1000),
                token = ' ago',
                i = 0,
                format;

        if (seconds < 0) {
                seconds = Math.abs(seconds);
                token = '';
        }

        while (format = time_formats[i++]) {
                if (seconds < format[0]) {
                        if (format.length == 2) {
                                return format[1] + (i > 1 ? token : ''); // Conditional so we don't return Just Now Ago
                        } else {
                                return Math.round(seconds / format[2]) + ' ' + format[1] + (i > 1 ? token : '');
                        }
                }
        }

        // overflow for centuries
        if(seconds > 4730400000)
                return Math.round(seconds / 4730400000) + ' centuries' + token;

        return date_str;
};

if(typeof jQuery != 'undefined') {
        jQuery.fn.humane_dates = function(){
                return this.each(function(){
                        var date = humane_date(this.title);
                        if(date && jQuery(this).text() != date) // don't modify the dom if we don't have to
                                jQuery(this).text(date);
                });
        };
}

Answer 30

Here's an implementation I added as an extension method to the DateTime class that handles both future and past dates and provides an approximation option that allows you to specify the level of detail you're looking for ("3 hour ago" vs "3 hours, 23 minutes, 12 seconds ago"):

using System.Text;

/// <summary>
/// Compares a supplied date to the current date and generates a friendly English 
/// comparison ("5 days ago", "5 days from now")
/// </summary>
/// <param name="date">The date to convert</param>
/// <param name="approximate">When off, calculate timespan down to the second.
/// When on, approximate to the largest round unit of time.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string ToRelativeDateString(this DateTime value, bool approximate)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    string suffix = (value > DateTime.Now) ? " from now" : " ago";

    TimeSpan timeSpan = new TimeSpan(Math.Abs(DateTime.Now.Subtract(value).Ticks));

    if (timeSpan.Days > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0} {1}", timeSpan.Days,
          (timeSpan.Days > 1) ? "days" : "day");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Hours > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty,
          timeSpan.Hours, (timeSpan.Hours > 1) ? "hours" : "hour");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Minutes > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty, 
          timeSpan.Minutes, (timeSpan.Minutes > 1) ? "minutes" : "minute");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Seconds > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty, 
          timeSpan.Seconds, (timeSpan.Seconds > 1) ? "seconds" : "second");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (sb.Length == 0) return "right now";

    sb.Append(suffix);
    return sb.ToString();
}