[Resolved] Formatting the difference between two time stamps

[ExpendableDecoy]

Hi there. 🙂

I'm currently having to compare two time stamps and then output the difference between the two.

time() against a stored timestamp in the db.

eg.

$output = time() - 1093526448

With the result from $output I need it to show with this static formatting:

eg.
0 years, 1 month, 3 days

The output value needs to be formatted exactly like this but obviously changing the days, etc. when the time difference increases.

Does anyone have a good way to do this?.

Thanks. 🙂

[drawmack]

There are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. If you need help with the math to format a timestamp into something more readable give me a call and I'll have my second grader help you.

[ExpendableDecoy]

Thank you for that prick of a response.

I know how to convert a time stamp into minutes, hours, days, etc, but I only know how to do it for one type at a time.

For example, 366 days. I don't know how to then force it to show an output on page of 1 year, 1 day.

The question I'm asking isn't a question of basic math but what to use in date() to show it this way.

Could someone else answer who isn't a complete twat please?.

If I need to clarify more, please let me know.

[ExpendableDecoy]

Resolved by some better help & understanding, to what I was trying to achieve, than from that big help above.

[drawmack]

Sorry if you took my response the wrong way. If you had read [man]date[/man] then you would have known that data will not work for this as it is not date's intent. here is a function that will do the trick for you.

<?phpdefine('MINUTE',60);
define('HOUR',3600);
define('DAY',86400);
define('WEEK',604800);
define('YEAR',31449600);

function secondsToDispTime($seconds) {
    $retval = '';
    if($seconds >= YEAR) {
        $years = intval($seconds/YEAR);
        $seconds -= $years * YEAR;
        $retval = $years . ' years ';
        if($seconds > 0)
            $retval .= secondsToDispTime($seconds);
    } elseif($seconds >= WEEK) {
        $weeks = intval($seconds/WEEK);
        $seconds -= $weeks * WEEK;
        $retval = $weeks . ' weeks ';
        if($seconds > 0)
            $retval .= secondsToDispTime($seconds);
    } elseif($seconds >= DAY) {
        $days = intval($seconds/DAY);
        $seconds -= $days * DAY;
        $retval = $days . ' days ';
        if($seconds > 0)
            $retval .= secondsToDispTime($seconds);
    } elseif($seconds >= HOUR) {
        $hours = intval($seconds/HOUR);
        $seconds -= $hours * HOUR;
        $retval = $hours . ' hours ';
        if($seconds > 0)
            $retval .= secondsToDispTime($seconds);
    } elseif($seconds >= MINUTE) {
        $minutes = intval($seconds/MINUTE);
        $seconds -= $minutes * MINUTE;
        $retval = $minutes . ' minutes ';
        if($seconds > 0)
            $retval .= secondsToDispTime($seconds);
    } else {
        $retval = $seconds . ' seconds';
    } //end if
    return $retval;
} //end secondsToDispTime
?>

[ExpendableDecoy]

I don't see how I could have taken the initial reponse the wrong way given the tone to it.

Anyway, thank you for the function above. It is a better way than I got elsewhere.