cannot get human readable text from various functions discovered - php

Question

I am trying to transform a unix timestamp into a human readable string so i can show how long ago a user signed up.
Here is my data:
mysql> select createdate as unixtimestamp,date_format(from_unixtime(createdate),'%e %b %Y') as dateformatted from users where userid=40645;
+---------------+---------------+
| unixtimestamp | dateformatted |
+---------------+---------------+
| 1162642968 | 4 Nov 2006 |
+---------------+---------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)
mysql>
Ok so here is where the problem resides. I found 3 different functions on the internet that return a human readable string from a unix timestamp. All 3 failed to work.
I'd like someone to look at these functions and help me figure out how to fix one of them to return the correct human readable string.
On with the show!
Here is function #1:
function getElapstedTimeHumanReadable($time)
{
$names = array("seconds", "minutes", "hours", "days", "months", "years");
$values = array(1, 60, 3600, 24 * 3600, 30 * 24 * 3600, 365 * 24 * 3600);
$time = time()-$time;
for($i = count($values) - 1; $i > 0 && $time < $values[$i]; $i--);
if($i == 0) {
$timestamp = intval($time / $values[$i]) . " " . $names[$i];
} else {
$t1 = intval($time / $values[$i]);
$t2 = intval(($time - $t1 * $values[$i]) / $values[$i - 1]);
$timestamp= "$t1 " . $names[$i] . ", $t2 " . $names[$i - 1];
}
return $timestamp;
}
My return value for this function is "Joined 1 days, 17 hours ago"
Clearly this isn't correct.
Here is function #2:
function getElapsedTimeHumanReadable($time)
{
$time = time() - $time;
$points = array(
'year' => 31556926,
'month' => 2629743,
'week' => 604800,
'day' => 86400,
'hour' => 3600,
'minute' => 60,
'second' => 1
);
foreach($points as $point => $value)
{
if($elapsed = floor($time/$value) > 0)
{
$s = $elapsed>1?'s':'';
$timestamp = "$elapsed $point$s";
break;
}
}
return $timestamp;
}
My return value for this function is "Joined 1 day ago
And finally, here is function #3:
function getElapsedTimeHumanReadable($time)
{
$etime=time()-$time;
if ($etime < 1)
{
return '0 seconds';
}
$a = array( 365 * 24 * 60 * 60 => 'year',
30 * 24 * 60 * 60 => 'month',
24 * 60 * 60 => 'day',
60 * 60 => 'hour',
60 => 'minute',
1 => 'second'
);
$a_plural = array( 'year' => 'years',
'month' => 'months',
'day' => 'days',
'hour' => 'hours',
'minute' => 'minutes',
'second' => 'seconds'
);
foreach ($a as $secs => $str)
{
$d = $etime / $secs;
if ($d >= 1)
{
$r = round($d);
return $r . ' ' . ($r > 1 ? $a_plural[$str] : $str) . ' ago';
}
}
}
So theres my code and my data. Not quite sure why none seem to work. I tried looking at the code but I cannot figure out how to solve it.
Whats interesting is they all say 2 days, but my timestamp appears to show 2006.
Thanks for the help.

Answer 1

$time = 1162642968 ;
$date = new DateTime( );
$date->setTimestamp( $time );
$today = new DateTime( 'now', new DateTimeZone( "Europe/Rome" ) );
$diff = $today->diff( $date);
echo "Year: " . $diff->y . " - Month: " . $diff->m . " - Days: " . $diff->d . " - Hours: " . $diff->h;
EXAMPLE
As suggested I'll add explanation, even if I think it is really self explain.
$date = new DateTime() create the object and $date->setTimestamp( $time ) is used to put that date at a value from the mysql timestamp.
$today is created pointing at the actual date.
$date->diff() create a DateInterval Object ( http://php.net/manual/en/class.dateinterval.php ) that contains all the necessary datas.

Answer 2

If you want to solve this yourself, you should calculate the difference and base it on those values. I haven't tested RiccardoC's Answer, but this seems as a nice way to go.
As I see in your posting, you calculate a year always as 365 days, so if you don't want to go in a deep detail with time zones, extra hours, extra days, different month lengths etc, you could use something simple as that:
function getElapsedTimeHumanReadable($timestamp) {
$diff = time() - $timestamp;
$years = intval($diff/31536000); //seconds in a year 60*60*24*365
$diff -= ($years*31536000);
$months = intval($diff/2592000); //seconds in a month 60*60*24*30
$diff -= ($months*2592000);
$days = intval($diff/86400); //seconds in a day 60*60*24
return $years." years, ".$months." months, ".$days." days ago";
}
echo getElapsedTimeHumanReadable(1162642968); // November 4th, 2006
Echos 9 years, 0 months, 17 days ago