iPhone: Convert date string to a relative time sta

Question

I've got a timestamp as a string like:

Thu, 21 May 09 19:10:09 -0700

and I'd like to convert it to a relative time stamp like '20 minutes ago' or '3 days ago'.

What's the best way to do this using Objective-C for the iPhone?

Answer 1

-(NSString *)dateDiff:(NSString *)origDate {
    NSDateFormatter *df = [[NSDateFormatter alloc] init];
    [df setFormatterBehavior:NSDateFormatterBehavior10_4];
    [df setDateFormat:@"EEE, dd MMM yy HH:mm:ss VVVV"];
    NSDate *convertedDate = [df dateFromString:origDate];
    [df release];
    NSDate *todayDate = [NSDate date];
    double ti = [convertedDate timeIntervalSinceDate:todayDate];
    ti = ti * -1;
    if(ti < 1) {
        return @"never";
    } else  if (ti < 60) {
        return @"less than a minute ago";
    } else if (ti < 3600) {
        int diff = round(ti / 60);
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d minutes ago", diff];
    } else if (ti < 86400) {
        int diff = round(ti / 60 / 60);
        return[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d hours ago", diff];
    } else if (ti < 2629743) {
        int diff = round(ti / 60 / 60 / 24);
        return[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d days ago", diff];
    } else {
        return @"never";
    }   
}

Answer 2

Use the NSDate class:

timeIntervalSinceDate

returns the interval in seconds.

Quick exercise to implement this in objective-c:

1. Get time "now" NSDate
2. Get the NSDate you wish to compare with
3. Get the interval in seconds using timeIntervalSinceDate

Then implement this pseudo code:

if (x < 60) // x seconds ago

else if( x/60 < 60) // floor(x/60) minutes ago

else if (x/(60*60) < 24) // floor(x/(60*60) hours ago

else if (x/(24*60*60) < 7) // floor(x(24*60*60) days ago

and so on...

then you need to decide whether a month is 30,31 or 28 days. Keep it simple - pick 30.

There might be a better way, but its 2am and this is the first thing that came to mind...

Answer 3

I took Carl Coryell-Martin's code and made a simpler NSDate category that doesn't have warnings about the string formatting of the singulars, and also tidys up the week ago singular:

@interface NSDate (Extras)
- (NSString *)differenceString;
@end

@implementation NSDate (Extras)

- (NSString *)differenceString{
    NSDate* date = self;
    NSDate *now = [NSDate date];
    double time = [date timeIntervalSinceDate:now];
    time *= -1;
    if (time < 60) {
        int diff = round(time);
        if (diff == 1)
            return @"1 second ago";
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d seconds ago", diff];
    } else if (time < 3600) {
        int diff = round(time / 60);
        if (diff == 1)
            return @"1 minute ago";
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d minutes ago", diff];
    } else if (time < 86400) {
        int diff = round(time / 60 / 60);
        if (diff == 1)
            return @"1 hour ago";
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d hours ago", diff];
    } else if (time < 604800) {
        int diff = round(time / 60 / 60 / 24);
        if (diff == 1)
            return @"yesterday";
        if (diff == 7)
            return @"a week ago";
        return[NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d days ago", diff];
    } else {
        int diff = round(time / 60 / 60 / 24 / 7);
        if (diff == 1)
            return @"a week ago";
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d weeks ago", diff];
    }   
}

@end

Answer 4

In the interest of completeness, based on a @Gilean's answer, here's the complete code for a simple category on NSDate that mimics rails' nifty date helpers. For a refresher on categories, these are instance methods that you would call on NSDate objects. So, if I have an NSDate that represents yesterday, [myDate distanceOfTimeInWordsToNow] => "1 day".

Hope it's useful!

@interface NSDate (NSDate_Relativity)

-(NSString *)distanceOfTimeInWordsSinceDate:(NSDate *)aDate;
-(NSString *)distanceOfTimeInWordsToNow;

@end



@implementation NSDate (NSDate_Relativity)


-(NSString *)distanceOfTimeInWordsToNow {
    return [self distanceOfTimeInWordsSinceDate:[NSDate date]];

}

-(NSString *)distanceOfTimeInWordsSinceDate:(NSDate *)aDate {
    double interval = [self timeIntervalSinceDate:aDate];

    NSString *timeUnit;
    int timeValue;

    if (interval < 0) {
        interval = interval * -1;        
    }

    if (interval< 60) {
        return @"seconds";

    } else if (interval< 3600) { // minutes

        timeValue = round(interval / 60);

        if (timeValue == 1) {
            timeUnit = @"minute";

        } else {
            timeUnit = @"minutes";

        }


    } else if (interval< 86400) {
        timeValue = round(interval / 60 / 60);

        if (timeValue == 1) {
            timeUnit = @"hour";

        } else {
            timeUnit = @"hours";
        }


    } else if (interval< 2629743) {
        int days = round(interval / 60 / 60 / 24);

        if (days < 7) {

            timeValue = days;

            if (timeValue == 1) {
                timeUnit = @"day";
            } else {
                timeUnit = @"days";
            }

        } else if (days < 30) {
            int weeks = days / 7;

            timeValue = weeks;

            if (timeValue == 1) {
                timeUnit = @"week";
            } else {
                timeUnit = @"weeks";
            }


        } else if (days < 365) {

            int months = days / 30;
            timeValue = months;

            if (timeValue == 1) {
                timeUnit = @"month";
            } else {
                timeUnit = @"months";
            }

        } else if (days < 30000) { // this is roughly 82 years. After that, we'll say 'forever'
            int years = days / 365;
            timeValue = years;

            if (timeValue == 1) {
                timeUnit = @"year";
            } else {
                timeUnit = @"years";
            }

        } else {
            return @"forever ago";
        }
    }

    return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%d %@", timeValue, timeUnit];

}

@end

Answer 5

In Swift

Usage:

let time = NSDate(timeIntervalSince1970: timestamp).timeIntervalSinceNow
let relativeTimeString = NSDate.relativeTimeInString(time)
println(relativeTimeString)

Extension:

extension NSDate {
    class func relativeTimeInString(value: NSTimeInterval) -> String {
        func getTimeData(value: NSTimeInterval) -> (count: Int, suffix: String) {
            let count = Int(floor(value))
            let suffix = count != 1 ? "s" : ""
            return (count: count, suffix: suffix)
        }

        let value = -value
        switch value {
            case 0...15: return "just now"

            case 0..<60:
                let timeData = getTimeData(value)
                return "\(timeData.count) second\(timeData.suffix) ago"

            case 0..<3600:
                let timeData = getTimeData(value/60)
                return "\(timeData.count) minute\(timeData.suffix) ago"

            case 0..<86400:
                let timeData = getTimeData(value/3600)
                return "\(timeData.count) hour\(timeData.suffix) ago"

            case 0..<604800:
                let timeData = getTimeData(value/86400)
                return "\(timeData.count) day\(timeData.suffix) ago"

            default:
                let timeData = getTimeData(value/604800)
                return "\(timeData.count) week\(timeData.suffix) ago"
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

Not sure why this isnt in cocoa-touch, i nice standard way of doing this would be great.

Set up some types to keep the data in, it will make it easier if you ever ned to localise it a bit more. (obviously expand if you need more time periods)

typedef struct DayHours {
    int Days;
    double Hours;
} DayHours;


+ (DayHours) getHourBasedTimeInterval:(double) hourBased withHoursPerDay:(double) hpd
{
    int NumberOfDays = (int)(fabs(hourBased) / hpd);
    float hoursegment = fabs(hourBased) - (NumberOfDays * hpd);
    DayHours dh;
    dh.Days = NumberOfDays;
    dh.Hours = hoursegment;
    return dh;
}

NOTE: I"m using an hour based calculation , as that is what my data is in. NSTimeInterval is second based. I also had to convert between the two.