我知道这里有几个答案，但这是我想到的。这只处理MySQL DATETIME值，根据我回应的原始问题。数组$a需要做一些工作。我欢迎就如何改进提出意见。电话为:

Echo time_elapsed_string('2014-11-14 09:42:28');

function time_elapsed_string($ptime)
{
    // Past time as MySQL DATETIME value
    $ptime = strtotime($ptime);

    // Current time as MySQL DATETIME value
    $csqltime = date('Y-m-d H:i:s');

    // Current time as Unix timestamp
    $ctime = strtotime($csqltime); 

    // Elapsed time
    $etime = $ctime - $ptime;

    // If no elapsed time, return 0
    if ($etime < 1){
        return '0 seconds';
    }

    $a = array( 365 * 24 * 60 * 60  =>  'year',
                 30 * 24 * 60 * 60  =>  'month',
                      24 * 60 * 60  =>  'day',
                           60 * 60  =>  'hour',
                                60  =>  'minute',
                                 1  =>  'second'
    );

    $a_plural = array( 'year'   => 'years',
                       'month'  => 'months',
                       'day'    => 'days',
                       'hour'   => 'hours',
                       'minute' => 'minutes',
                       'second' => 'seconds'
    );

    foreach ($a as $secs => $str){
        // Divide elapsed time by seconds
        $d = $etime / $secs;
        if ($d >= 1){
            // Round to the next lowest integer 
            $r = floor($d);
            // Calculate time to remove from elapsed time
            $rtime = $r * $secs;
            // Recalculate and store elapsed time for next loop
            if(($etime - $rtime)  < 0){
                $etime -= ($r - 1) * $secs;
            }
            else{
                $etime -= $rtime;
            }
            // Create string to return
            $estring = $estring . $r . ' ' . ($r > 1 ? $a_plural[$str] : $str) . ' ';
        }
    }
    return $estring . ' ago';
}

再加上另一个选择……

虽然我更喜欢在这里发布的DateTime方法，但我不喜欢它显示0年等事实。

/* 
 * Returns a string stating how long ago this happened
 */

private function timeElapsedString($ptime){
    $diff = time() - $ptime;
    $calc_times = array();
    $timeleft   = array();

    // Prepare array, depending on the output we want to get.
    $calc_times[] = array('Year',   'Years',   31557600);
    $calc_times[] = array('Month',  'Months',  2592000);
    $calc_times[] = array('Day',    'Days',    86400);
    $calc_times[] = array('Hour',   'Hours',   3600);
    $calc_times[] = array('Minute', 'Minutes', 60);
    $calc_times[] = array('Second', 'Seconds', 1);

    foreach ($calc_times AS $timedata){
        list($time_sing, $time_plur, $offset) = $timedata;

        if ($diff >= $offset){
            $left = floor($diff / $offset);
            $diff -= ($left * $offset);
            $timeleft[] = "{$left} " . ($left == 1 ? $time_sing : $time_plur);
        }
    }

    return $timeleft ? (time() > $ptime ? null : '-') . implode(' ', $timeleft) : 0;
}

$time_ago = ' ';
$time = time() - $time; // to get the time since that moment
$tokens = array (
31536000 => 'year',2592000 => 'month',604800 => 'week',86400 => 'day',3600 => 'hour',
60  => 'minute',1 => 'second');
foreach ($tokens as $unit => $text) {
if ($time < $unit)continue;
$numberOfUnits = floor($time / $unit);
$time_ago = ' '.$time_ago. $numberOfUnits.' '.$text.(($numberOfUnits>1)?'s':'').'  ';
$time = $time % $unit;}echo $time_ago;

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/

此函数不是为英语语言而设计的。我把这些单词翻译成英语。在用于英语之前，这需要更多的修正。

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

        if($ts>315360000) $val = round($ts/31536000,0).' year';
        else if($ts>94608000) $val = round($ts/31536000,0).' years';
        else if($ts>63072000) $val = ' two years';
        else if($ts>31536000) $val = ' a year';

        else if($ts>24192000) $val = round($ts/2419200,0).' month';
        else if($ts>7257600) $val = round($ts/2419200,0).' months';
        else if($ts>4838400) $val = ' two months';
        else if($ts>2419200) $val = ' a month';


        else if($ts>6048000) $val = round($ts/604800,0).' week';
        else if($ts>1814400) $val = round($ts/604800,0).' weeks';
        else if($ts>1209600) $val = ' two weeks';
        else if($ts>604800) $val = ' a week';

        else if($ts>864000) $val = round($ts/86400,0).' day';
        else if($ts>259200) $val = round($ts/86400,0).' days';
        else if($ts>172800) $val = ' two days';
        else if($ts>86400) $val = ' a day';

        else if($ts>36000) $val = round($ts/3600,0).' year';
        else if($ts>10800) $val = round($ts/3600,0).' years';
        else if($ts>7200) $val = ' two years';
        else if($ts>3600) $val = ' a year';

        else if($ts>600) $val = round($ts/60,0).' minute';
        else if($ts>180) $val = round($ts/60,0).' minutes';
        else if($ts>120) $val = ' two minutes';
        else if($ts>60) $val = ' a minute';

        else if($ts>10) $val = round($ts,0).' second';
        else if($ts>2) $val = round($ts,0).' seconds';
        else if($ts>1) $val = ' two seconds';
        else $val = $ts.' a second';


        return $val;
    }

$time_elapsed = timeAgo($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";
        }
    }
}