Best way to calculate human readable elapsed time [closed] - php

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Closed 9 years ago.
I am wondering what is the most elegant way of calculating a human readable elasped time given a certain amount of seconds. I want to write this in PHP.
Here is the output needed:
elapsedTimeInSeconds > one year, output "# years, # months"
elapsedTimeInSeconds > one month, output "# months, # days"
elapsedTimeInSeconds > one day, output "# days, # hours"
elapsedTimeInSeconds > one hour, output "# hours, # minutes"
elapsedTimeInSeconds > one minute, output "# minutes, # seconds"
I have tried different solutions that are awkward and full of conditional statements, but I was hoping for a more recursive and "clean code" method.

Answer 1

I think this is more flexible, as you can easily add new units like decade, century, etc, and the code wouldn't change:
$names = array("seconds", "minutes", "hours", "days", "months", "years");
$values = array(1, 60, 3600, 24 * 3600, 30 * 24 * 3600, 365 * 24 * 3600);
$time = ...elapsedTimeInSeconds...;
for($i = count($values) - 1; $i > 0 && $time < $values[$i]; $i--);
if($i == 0) {
echo intval($time / $values[$i]) . " " . $names[$i];
} else {
$t1 = intval($time / $values[$i]);
$t2 = intval(($time - $t1 * $values[$i]) / $values[$i - 1]);
echo "$t1 " . $names[$i] . ", $t2 " . $names[$i - 1];
}

Answer 2

Thank you for your suggestions.
I mainly used Waygood and ChrisForrence's suggestions for this method. I tried to keep it as simple as possible and introduced simple arguments such as detail level and delimiter (for string ouput).
public function elapsedTimeHumanReadable($date = null, $detailLevel = 2, $delimiter = ' et ')
{
if($date === null)
{
$date = self::now();
}
$sec = $this->elapsedSecond($date);
$a_sec = 1;
$a_min = $a_sec * 60;
$an_hour = $a_min * 60;
$a_day = $an_hour * 24;
$a_month = $a_day * 30;
$a_year = $a_day * 365;
$text = '';
$resultStack = array();
if($sec >= $a_year)
{
$years = floor($sec / $a_year);
$text .= $years . $this->plural($years, ' an');
$sec = $sec - ($years * $a_year);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
if($sec >= $a_month)
{
$months = floor($sec / $a_month);
$text = $months . ' mois';
$sec = $sec - ($months * $a_month);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
if($sec >= $a_day)
{
$days = floor($sec / $a_day);
$text = $days . $this->plural($days, ' jour');
$sec = $sec - ($days * $a_day);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
if($sec >= $an_hour)
{
$hours = floor($sec / $an_hour);
$text = $hours . $this->plural($hours, ' heure');
$sec = $sec - ($hours * $an_hour);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
if($sec >= $a_min)
{
$minutes = floor($sec / $a_min);
$text = $minutes . $this->plural($minutes, ' minute');
$sec = $sec - ($minutes * $a_min);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
if($sec >= $a_sec)
{
$seconds = floor($sec / $a_sec);
$text = $sec . $this->plural($seconds, ' seconde');
$sec = $sec - ($sec * $a_sec);
array_push($resultStack, $text);
}
$result = $resultStack[0];
for($i = 1; $i <= $detailLevel - 1; $i++)
{
if(!empty($resultStack[$i]))
{
$result .= $delimiter . $resultStack[$i];
}
}
return $result;
}
I also added a very simple plural function to return the time unit in a correct grammatical fashion:
public function plural($value, $unit)
{
if($value > 1)
{
return $unit . 's';
}
else
{
return $unit;
}
}
I am not really happy with the for loop, but it actually works fine.
Anyway, thank you very much for your help!

Answer 3

I use this:
function durationFormat($time)
{
if(gmdate("Y", $time)>1970) return (1970-gmdate("Y",$time)).gmdate(" \y\r\s ", $time).(gmdate("n",$time)-1).gmdate(" \m\o\n\t\h\s ", $time).(gmdate("j",$time)-1).gmdate(" \d\a\y\s H:i:s", $time);
if(gmdate("n", $time)>1) return (gmdate("n",$time)-1).gmdate(" \m\o\n\t\h\s ", $time).(gmdate("j",$time)-1).gmdate(" \d\a\y\s H:i:s", $time);
if(gmdate("j", $time)>1) return (gmdate("j",$time)-1).gmdate(" \d\a\y\s H:i:s", $time);
return gmdate("H:i:s", $time);
}
It's a bit quick and dirty but does the job
OR
function durationFormat2($seconds)
{
$a_sec=1;
$a_min=$a_sec*60;
$an_hour=$a_min*60;
$a_day=$an_hour*24;
$a_week=$a_day*52;
//$a_month=$a_day*(floor(365/12));
$a_month=$a_day*30;
$a_year=$a_day*365;
$params=2;
$text='';
if($seconds>$a_year)
{
$years=floor($seconds/$a_year);
$text.=$years.' years ';
$seconds=$seconds-($years*$a_year);
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
if($seconds>$a_month)
{
$months=floor($seconds/$a_month);
$text.=$months.' months ';
$seconds=$seconds-($months*$a_month);
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
if($seconds>$a_week)
{
$weeks=floor($seconds/$a_week);
$text.=$weeks.' weeks ';
$seconds=$seconds-($months*$a_week);
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
if($seconds>$a_day)
{
$days=floor($seconds/$a_day);
$text.=$days.' days ';
$seconds=$seconds-($days*$a_day);
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
$H=gmdate("H", $seconds);
if($H>0)
{
$text.=$H.' hours ';
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
$M=gmdate("i", $seconds);
if($M>0)
{
$text.=$M.' minutes ';
$params--;
}
if($params==0) return $text;
$S=gmdate("s", $seconds);
$text.=$S.' seconds ';
return $text;
}