用于客户端gwt的Java：

import java.util.Date;

public class RelativeDateFormat {

 private static final long ONE_MINUTE = 60000L;
 private static final long ONE_HOUR = 3600000L;
 private static final long ONE_DAY = 86400000L;
 private static final long ONE_WEEK = 604800000L;

 public static String format(Date date) {

  long delta = new Date().getTime() - date.getTime();
  if (delta < 1L * ONE_MINUTE) {
   return toSeconds(delta) == 1 ? "one second ago" : toSeconds(delta)
     + " seconds ago";
  }
  if (delta < 2L * ONE_MINUTE) {
   return "one minute ago";
  }
  if (delta < 45L * ONE_MINUTE) {
   return toMinutes(delta) + " minutes ago";
  }
  if (delta < 90L * ONE_MINUTE) {
   return "one hour ago";
  }
  if (delta < 24L * ONE_HOUR) {
   return toHours(delta) + " hours ago";
  }
  if (delta < 48L * ONE_HOUR) {
   return "yesterday";
  }
  if (delta < 30L * ONE_DAY) {
   return toDays(delta) + " days ago";
  }
  if (delta < 12L * 4L * ONE_WEEK) {
   long months = toMonths(delta);
   return months <= 1 ? "one month ago" : months + " months ago";
  } else {
   long years = toYears(delta);
   return years <= 1 ? "one year ago" : years + " years ago";
  }
 }

 private static long toSeconds(long date) {
  return date / 1000L;
 }

 private static long toMinutes(long date) {
  return toSeconds(date) / 60L;
 }

 private static long toHours(long date) {
  return toMinutes(date) / 60L;
 }

 private static long toDays(long date) {
  return toHours(date) / 24L;
 }

 private static long toMonths(long date) {
  return toDays(date) / 30L;
 }

 private static long toYears(long date) {
  return toMonths(date) / 365L;
 }

}

iPhone Objective-C版本

+ (NSString *)timeAgoString:(NSDate *)date {
    int delta = -(int)[date timeIntervalSinceNow];

    if (delta < 60)
    {
        return delta == 1 ? @"one second ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i seconds ago", delta];
    }
    if (delta < 120)
    {
        return @"a minute ago";
    }
    if (delta < 2700)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i minutes ago", delta/60];
    }
    if (delta < 5400)
    {
        return @"an hour ago";
    }
    if (delta < 24 * 3600)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i hours ago", delta/3600];
    }
    if (delta < 48 * 3600)
    {
        return @"yesterday";
    }
    if (delta < 30 * 24 * 3600)
    {
        return [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i days ago", delta/(24*3600)];
    }
    if (delta < 12 * 30 * 24 * 3600)
    {
        int months = delta/(30*24*3600);
        return months <= 1 ? @"one month ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i months ago", months];
    }
    else
    {
        int years = delta/(12*30*24*3600);
        return years <= 1 ? @"one year ago" : [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%i years ago", years];
    }
}

文森特接受的答案做出了许多武断的决定。为什么45分钟舍入为一小时，而45秒不舍入为一分钟？在年和月的计算中，它的圈复杂度增加了，这使得遵循逻辑变得更加复杂。它假设TimeSpan是相对于过去（2天前）的，而它很可能是在未来（2天后）。它定义了不必要的常量，而不是使用TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond等。

此实现解决了上述问题，并更新了语法以使用开关表达式和关系模式

/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="TimeSpan"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10).ToNaturalLanguage();
/// // 10 seconds
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this TimeSpan @this)
{
    const int daysInWeek = 7;
    const int daysInMonth = 30;
    const int daysInYear = 365;
    const long threshold = 100 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond;
    @this = @this.TotalSeconds < 0
        ? TimeSpan.FromSeconds(@this.TotalSeconds * -1)
        : @this;
    return (@this.Ticks + threshold) switch
    {
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond => "a second",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => @this.Seconds + " seconds",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => "a minute",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => @this.Minutes + " minutes",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => "an hour",
        < 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Hours + " hours",
        < 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a day",
        < 1 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Days + " days",
        < 2 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a week",
        < 1 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInWeek).ToString("F0") + " weeks",
        < 2 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a month",
        < 1 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInMonth).ToString("F0") + " months",
        < 2 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a year",
        _ => (@this.Days / daysInYear).ToString("F0") + " years"
    };
}

/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="DateTime"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// (DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)).ToNaturalLanguage()
/// // 10 seconds ago
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this DateTime @this)
{
    TimeSpan timeSpan = @this - DateTime.Now;
    return timeSpan.TotalSeconds switch
    {
        >= 1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " until",
        <= -1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " ago",
        _ => "now",
    };
}

可以使用NUnit对其进行如下测试：

[TestCase("a second", 0)]
[TestCase("a second", 1)]
[TestCase("2 seconds", 2)]
[TestCase("a minute", 0, 1)]
[TestCase("5 minutes", 0, 5)]
[TestCase("an hour", 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("2 hours", 0, 0, 2)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 24)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("6 days", 0, 0, 0, 6)]
[TestCase("a week", 0, 0, 0, 7)]
[TestCase("4 weeks", 0, 0, 0, 29)]
[TestCase("a month", 0, 0, 0, 30)]
[TestCase("6 months", 0, 0, 0, 6 * 30)]
[TestCase("a year", 0, 0, 0, 365)]
[TestCase("68 years", int.MaxValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_TimeSpan(
    string expected,
    int seconds,
    int minutes = 0,
    int hours = 0,
    int days = 0
)
{
    // Arrange
    TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);

    // Act
    string result = timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage();

    // Assert
    Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}

[TestCase("now", 0)]
[TestCase("10 minutes ago", 0, -10)]
[TestCase("10 minutes until", 10, 10)]
[TestCase("68 years until", int.MaxValue)]
[TestCase("68 years ago", int.MinValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_DateTime(
    string expected,
    int seconds,
    int minutes = 0,
    int hours = 0,
    int days = 0
)
{
    // Arrange
    TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);
    DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
    DateTime dateTime = now + timeSpan;

    // Act
    string result = dateTime.ToNaturalLanguage();

    // Assert
    Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}

或者作为要点：https://gist.github.com/StudioLE/2dd394e3f792e79adc927ede274df56e

这是stackoverflow使用的算法，但使用了错误修复（没有“一小时前”）的perlish伪代码进行了更简洁的重写。该函数在秒前取一个（正数），并返回一个人类友好的字符串，如“3小时前”或“昨天”。

agoify($delta)
  local($y, $mo, $d, $h, $m, $s);
  $s = floor($delta);
  if($s<=1)            return "a second ago";
  if($s<60)            return "$s seconds ago";
  $m = floor($s/60);
  if($m==1)            return "a minute ago";
  if($m<45)            return "$m minutes ago";
  $h = floor($m/60);
  if($h==1)            return "an hour ago";
  if($h<24)            return "$h hours ago";
  $d = floor($h/24);
  if($d<2)             return "yesterday";
  if($d<30)            return "$d days ago";
  $mo = floor($d/30);
  if($mo<=1)           return "a month ago";
  $y = floor($mo/12);
  if($y<1)             return "$mo months ago";
  if($y==1)            return "a year ago";
  return "$y years ago";

@杰夫

我知道你的有点长。然而，随着对“昨天”和“几年”的支持，它似乎确实更为有力。但根据我的经验，当使用此选项时，用户最有可能在前30天内查看内容。只有真正的铁杆人才会在这之后出现。所以，我通常选择保持简短。

这是我目前在我的一个网站上使用的方法。这只返回相对的日期、小时和时间。然后用户必须在输出中加上“ago”。

public static string ToLongString(this TimeSpan time)
{
    string output = String.Empty;

    if (time.Days > 0)
        output += time.Days + " days ";

    if ((time.Days == 0 || time.Days == 1) && time.Hours > 0)
        output += time.Hours + " hr ";

    if (time.Days == 0 && time.Minutes > 0)
        output += time.Minutes + " min ";

    if (output.Length == 0)
        output += time.Seconds + " sec";

    return output.Trim();
}

我从比尔·盖茨的一个博客中得到了这个答案。我需要在我的浏览器历史记录中找到它，我会给你链接。

执行相同操作的Javascript代码（按要求）：

function posted(t) {
    var now = new Date();
    var diff = parseInt((now.getTime() - Date.parse(t)) / 1000);
    if (diff < 60) { return 'less than a minute ago'; }
    else if (diff < 120) { return 'about a minute ago'; }
    else if (diff < (2700)) { return (parseInt(diff / 60)).toString() + ' minutes ago'; }
    else if (diff < (5400)) { return 'about an hour ago'; }
    else if (diff < (86400)) { return 'about ' + (parseInt(diff / 3600)).toString() + ' hours ago'; }
    else if (diff < (172800)) { return '1 day ago'; } 
    else {return (parseInt(diff / 86400)).toString() + ' days ago'; }
}

基本上，你是以秒为单位工作的。