How to Convert Time to time ago in PHP – 30 minutes ago, 2 days ago, etc.

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You might have seen an article or news is posted 30 minutes ago, or 1 day ago on a blog or news magazine websites. Following function will convert timestamp or supported date time into time elapsed string.

function time_elapsed_string($datetime, $full = false) {
	    $now = new DateTime;
	    $ago = new DateTime($datetime);
	    $diff = $now->diff($ago);

	    $diff->w = floor($diff->d / 7);
	    $diff->d -= $diff->w * 7;

	    $string = array(
	        'y' => 'year',
	        'm' => 'month',
	        'w' => 'week',
	        'd' => 'day',
	        'h' => 'hour',
	        'i' => 'minute',
	        's' => 'second',
	    );
	    foreach ($string as $k => &$v) {
	        if ($diff->$k) {
	            $v = $diff->$k . ' ' . $v . ($diff->$k > 1 ? 's' : '');
	        } else {
	            unset($string[$k]);
	        }
	    }

	    if (!$full) $string = array_slice($string, 0, 1);
	    return $string ? implode(', ', $string) . ' ago' : 'just now';
	}

Use Example:

Input data can be any supported date & time format.

echo time_elapsed_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35');
echo time_elapsed_string('@1367367755'); # timestamp input
echo time_elapsed_string('2013-05-01 00:22:35', true);

Output:

4 months ago
4 months ago
4 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 1 hour, 49 minutes, 15 seconds ago