举个例子:

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);

输入可以是任何受支持的日期和时间格式。

输出:

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

功能:

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';
}

下面是一个非常简单和非常有效的解决方案。

function timeElapsed($originalTime){

        $timeElapsed=time()-$originalTime;

        /*
          You can change the values of the following 2 variables 
          based on your opinion. For 100% accuracy, you can call
          php's cal_days_in_month() and do some additional coding
          using the values you get for each month. After all the
          coding, your final answer will be approximately equal to
          mine. That is why it is okay to simply use the average
          values below.
        */
        $averageNumbDaysPerMonth=(365.242/12);
        $averageNumbWeeksPerMonth=($averageNumbDaysPerMonth/7);

        $time1=(((($timeElapsed/60)/60)/24)/365.242);
        $time2=floor($time1);//Years
        $time3=($time1-$time2)*(365.242);
        $time4=($time3/$averageNumbDaysPerMonth);
        $time5=floor($time4);//Months
        $time6=($time4-$time5)*$averageNumbWeeksPerMonth;
        $time7=floor($time6);//Weeks
        $time8=($time6-$time7)*7;
        $time9=floor($time8);//Days
        $time10=($time8-$time9)*24;
        $time11=floor($time10);//Hours
        $time12=($time10-$time11)*60;
        $time13=floor($time12);//Minutes
        $time14=($time12-$time13)*60;
        $time15=round($time14);//Seconds

        $timeElapsed=$time2 . 'yrs ' . $time5 . 'months ' . $time7 . 
                     'weeks ' . $time9 .  'days ' . $time11 . 'hrs '
                     . $time13 . 'mins and ' . $time15 . 'secs.';

        return $timeElapsed;

}

回显时间已用（1201570814）;

样例输出:

6年4个月3周4天12小时40分36秒。

我不知道为什么还没有人提到碳。

https://github.com/briannesbitt/Carbon

这实际上是php dateTime的扩展(这里已经使用了)，它有:diffForHumans方法。所以你所需要做的就是:

$dt = Carbon::parse('2012-9-5 23:26:11.123789');
echo $dt->diffForHumans();

更多例子:http://carbon.nesbot.com/docs/#api-humandiff

这个解决方案的优点:

它适用于未来的日期，并将在2个月等时间内返回。 你可以使用本地化来获取其他语言，多元化也很好 如果你开始用碳来做其他事情，处理日期就会变得非常容易。

这其实是我找到的一个更好的解决方案。使用jQuery，但它的工作完美。此外，它会自动刷新类似于SO和Facebook的方式，所以你不需要刷新页面就能看到更新。

这个插件将读取<time>标签中的datetime attr，并为您填写它。

e.g. "4 minutes ago" or "about 1 day ago

http://timeago.yarp.com/

# This function prints the difference between two php datetime objects
# in a more human readable form
# inputs should be like strtotime($date)
function humanizeDateDiffference($now,$otherDate=null,$offset=null){
    if($otherDate != null){
        $offset = $now - $otherDate;
    }
    if($offset != null){
        $deltaS = $offset%60;
        $offset /= 60;
        $deltaM = $offset%60;
        $offset /= 60;
        $deltaH = $offset%24;
        $offset /= 24;
        $deltaD = ($offset > 1)?ceil($offset):$offset;      
    } else{
        throw new Exception("Must supply otherdate or offset (from now)");
    }
    if($deltaD > 1){
        if($deltaD > 365){
            $years = ceil($deltaD/365);
            if($years ==1){
                return "last year"; 
            } else{
                return "<br>$years years ago";
            }   
        }
        if($deltaD > 6){
            return date('d-M',strtotime("$deltaD days ago"));
        }       
        return "$deltaD days ago";
    }
    if($deltaD == 1){
        return "Yesterday";
    }
    if($deltaH == 1){
        return "last hour";
    }
    if($deltaM == 1){
        return "last minute";
    }
    if($deltaH > 0){
        return $deltaH." hours ago";
    }
    if($deltaM > 0){
        return $deltaM." minutes ago";
    }
    else{
        return "few seconds ago";
    }
}

$time_elapsed = timeAgo($time_ago); //The argument $time_ago is in timestamp (Y-m-d H:i:s)format.

//Function definition

function timeAgo($time_ago)
{
    $time_ago = strtotime($time_ago);
    $cur_time   = time();
    $time_elapsed   = $cur_time - $time_ago;
    $seconds    = $time_elapsed ;
    $minutes    = round($time_elapsed / 60 );
    $hours      = round($time_elapsed / 3600);
    $days       = round($time_elapsed / 86400 );
    $weeks      = round($time_elapsed / 604800);
    $months     = round($time_elapsed / 2600640 );
    $years      = round($time_elapsed / 31207680 );
    // Seconds
    if($seconds <= 60){
        return "just now";
    }
    //Minutes
    else if($minutes <=60){
        if($minutes==1){
            return "one minute ago";
        }
        else{
            return "$minutes minutes ago";
        }
    }
    //Hours
    else if($hours <=24){
        if($hours==1){
            return "an hour ago";
        }else{
            return "$hours hrs ago";
        }
    }
    //Days
    else if($days <= 7){
        if($days==1){
            return "yesterday";
        }else{
            return "$days days ago";
        }
    }
    //Weeks
    else if($weeks <= 4.3){
        if($weeks==1){
            return "a week ago";
        }else{
            return "$weeks weeks ago";
        }
    }
    //Months
    else if($months <=12){
        if($months==1){
            return "a month ago";
        }else{
            return "$months months ago";
        }
    }
    //Years
    else{
        if($years==1){
            return "one year ago";
        }else{
            return "$years years ago";
        }
    }
}