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。

# 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";
    }
}

如果你正在使用PostgreSQL，那么它将为你做的工作:

const DT_SQL = <<<SQL
WITH lapse AS (SELECT (?::timestamp(0) - now()::timestamp(0))::text t)
SELECT CASE
  WHEN (select t from lapse) ~ '^\s*-' THEN replace((select t from lapse), '-', '') ||' ago' 
  ELSE (select t from lapse) END;
SQL;

function timeSpanText($ts, $conn)
// $ts: date-time string, $conn: PostgreSQL PDO connection
{
 return $conn -> prepare(DT_SQL) -> execute([ts]) -> fetchColumn();
}

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';
}

它能帮你检查

   function calculate_time_span($seconds)
{  
 $year = floor($seconds /31556926);
$months = floor($seconds /2629743);
$week=floor($seconds /604800);
$day = floor($seconds /86400); 
$hours = floor($seconds / 3600);
 $mins = floor(($seconds - ($hours*3600)) / 60); 
$secs = floor($seconds % 60);
 if($seconds < 60) $time = $secs." seconds ago";
 else if($seconds < 3600 ) $time =($mins==1)?$mins."now":$mins." mins ago";
 else if($seconds < 86400) $time = ($hours==1)?$hours." hour ago":$hours." hours ago";
 else if($seconds < 604800) $time = ($day==1)?$day." day ago":$day." days ago";
 else if($seconds < 2629743) $time = ($week==1)?$week." week ago":$week." weeks ago";
 else if($seconds < 31556926) $time =($months==1)? $months." month ago":$months." months ago";
 else $time = ($year==1)? $year." year ago":$year." years ago";
return $time; 
}  
  $seconds = time() - strtotime($post->post_date); 
echo calculate_time_span($seconds); 

我做了这个，它工作得很好，它既适用于Unix时间戳，如1470919932，也适用于格式化时间，如16-08-11 14:53:30

function timeAgo($time_ago) {
    $time_ago =  strtotime($time_ago) ? strtotime($time_ago) : $time_ago;
    $time  = time() - $time_ago;

switch($time):
// seconds
case $time <= 60;
return 'lessthan a minute ago';
// minutes
case $time >= 60 && $time < 3600;
return (round($time/60) == 1) ? 'a minute' : round($time/60).' minutes ago';
// hours
case $time >= 3600 && $time < 86400;
return (round($time/3600) == 1) ? 'a hour ago' : round($time/3600).' hours ago';
// days
case $time >= 86400 && $time < 604800;
return (round($time/86400) == 1) ? 'a day ago' : round($time/86400).' days ago';
// weeks
case $time >= 604800 && $time < 2600640;
return (round($time/604800) == 1) ? 'a week ago' : round($time/604800).' weeks ago';
// months
case $time >= 2600640 && $time < 31207680;
return (round($time/2600640) == 1) ? 'a month ago' : round($time/2600640).' months ago';
// years
case $time >= 31207680;
return (round($time/31207680) == 1) ? 'a year ago' : round($time/31207680).' years ago' ;

endswitch;
}

?>