Easy To Read PHP Date Function
Tutorial by James of Bandit.co.nz™
Copyright James Nisbet 2005 ~ 2007



So I wanted a little function to output an easy to read but inaccurate date. I came up with the following little function;

	<?php


		function ezDate($d) {


			$ts = time() - strtotime(str_replace("-","/",$d));


	


			// check if date is in the past or future


			if($ts>0) { $when = ' ago'; } else { $ts = (int)str_replace("-","",$ts); } 


	      


			if($ts>31536000) { $val = round($ts/31536000,0); $typ = 'year'; }


			else if($ts>2419200) { $val = round($ts/2419200,0); $typ = 'month'; }


			else if($ts>604800) { $val = round($ts/604800,0); $typ = 'week'; }


			else if($ts>86400) { $val = round($ts/86400,0); $typ = 'day'; }


			else if($ts>3600) { $val = round($ts/3600,0); $typ = 'hour'; }


			else if($ts>60) { $val = round($ts/60,0); $typ = 'minute'; }


			else { $val = $ts; $typ = 'second'; }


			


			if($val!=1) $typ .= 's';


			return $val.' '.$typ.$when;


		}


	?>


	

Then I use it as follows;

	<?php


		echo 'My birthday was '.ezDate('2006-09-07 18:42:00');


	?>


	

Which would output (at the time of posting this);

		My birthday was 2 months ago.


	

I add an acronym tag around the output also, so my users can mouse-over for the exact date.

For example:

	<?php


		echo 'My birthday was <acronym title="2006-09-07 18:42:00">'.ezDate('2006-09-07 18:42:00').'</acronym>';


	?>


	

Have fun. If you have any issues, please drop me a line.

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