下面是我作为DateTime类的扩展方法添加的一个实现，它处理未来和过去的日期，并提供了一个近似选项，允许您指定要查找的详细程度（“3小时前”与“3小时、23分钟、12秒前”）：

using System.Text;

/// <summary>
/// Compares a supplied date to the current date and generates a friendly English 
/// comparison ("5 days ago", "5 days from now")
/// </summary>
/// <param name="date">The date to convert</param>
/// <param name="approximate">When off, calculate timespan down to the second.
/// When on, approximate to the largest round unit of time.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static string ToRelativeDateString(this DateTime value, bool approximate)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

    string suffix = (value > DateTime.Now) ? " from now" : " ago";

    TimeSpan timeSpan = new TimeSpan(Math.Abs(DateTime.Now.Subtract(value).Ticks));

    if (timeSpan.Days > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0} {1}", timeSpan.Days,
          (timeSpan.Days > 1) ? "days" : "day");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Hours > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty,
          timeSpan.Hours, (timeSpan.Hours > 1) ? "hours" : "hour");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Minutes > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty, 
          timeSpan.Minutes, (timeSpan.Minutes > 1) ? "minutes" : "minute");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (timeSpan.Seconds > 0)
    {
        sb.AppendFormat("{0}{1} {2}", (sb.Length > 0) ? ", " : string.Empty, 
          timeSpan.Seconds, (timeSpan.Seconds > 1) ? "seconds" : "second");
        if (approximate) return sb.ToString() + suffix;
    }
    if (sb.Length == 0) return "right now";

    sb.Append(suffix);
    return sb.ToString();
}

我想我应该用类和多态性来尝试一下。我以前的迭代使用了子类，结果开销太大。我已经切换到一个更灵活的委托/公共属性对象模型，这明显更好。我的代码稍微准确一点，我希望我能想出一种更好的方法来生成“几个月前”的代码，而这种方法看起来并没有过度设计。

我想我还是会坚持Jeff的if-then-cascade，因为它的代码更少，而且更简单（肯定更容易确保它按预期工作）。

对于以下代码，PrintRelativeTime.GetRelativeTime message（TimeSpan ago）返回相对时间消息（例如“昨天”）。

public class RelativeTimeRange : IComparable
{
    public TimeSpan UpperBound { get; set; }

    public delegate string RelativeTimeTextDelegate(TimeSpan timeDelta);

    public RelativeTimeTextDelegate MessageCreator { get; set; }

    public int CompareTo(object obj)
    {
        if (!(obj is RelativeTimeRange))
        {
            return 1;
        }
        // note that this sorts in reverse order to the way you'd expect, 
        // this saves having to reverse a list later
        return (obj as RelativeTimeRange).UpperBound.CompareTo(UpperBound);
    }
}

public class PrintRelativeTime
{
    private static List<RelativeTimeRange> timeRanges;

    static PrintRelativeTime()
    {
        timeRanges = new List<RelativeTimeRange>{
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(1),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "one second ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return delta.Seconds + " seconds ago"; }

            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(2),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "one minute ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromMinutes(60),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return delta.Minutes + " minutes ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromHours(2),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "one hour ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromHours(24),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return delta.Hours + " hours ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.FromDays(2),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "yesterday"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = DateTime.Now.Subtract(DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-1)),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return delta.Days + " days ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = DateTime.Now.Subtract(DateTime.Now.AddMonths(-2)),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "one month ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = DateTime.Now.Subtract(DateTime.Now.AddYears(-1)),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return (int)Math.Floor(delta.TotalDays / 30) + " months ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = DateTime.Now.Subtract(DateTime.Now.AddYears(-2)),
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return "one year ago"; }
            }, 
            new RelativeTimeRange
            {
                UpperBound = TimeSpan.MaxValue,
                MessageCreator = (delta) => 
                { return (int)Math.Floor(delta.TotalDays / 365.24D) + " years ago"; }
            }
        };

        timeRanges.Sort();
    }

    public static string GetRelativeTimeMessage(TimeSpan ago)
    {
        RelativeTimeRange postRelativeDateRange = timeRanges[0];

        foreach (var timeRange in timeRanges)
        {
            if (ago.CompareTo(timeRange.UpperBound) <= 0)
            {
                postRelativeDateRange = timeRange;
            }
        }

        return postRelativeDateRange.MessageCreator(ago);
    }
}

jquery.timeago插件

Jeff，因为Stack Overflow广泛使用jQuery，所以我建议使用jQuery.timeago插件。

优点：

即使页面是在10分钟前打开的，也不要使用“1分钟前”的时间戳；timeago自动刷新。您可以充分利用web应用程序中的页面和/或片段缓存，因为时间戳不是在服务器上计算的。你可以像酷孩子一样使用微格式。

只需将其附加到DOM就绪的时间戳：

jQuery(document).ready(function() {
    jQuery('abbr.timeago').timeago();
});

这将在标题中使用timeago类和ISO 8601时间戳转换所有缩写元素：

<abbr class="timeago" title="2008-07-17T09:24:17Z">July 17, 2008</abbr>

变成这样：

<abbr class="timeago" title="July 17, 2008">4 months ago</abbr>

结果：4个月前。随着时间的推移，时间戳将自动更新。

免责声明：我写了这个插件，所以我有偏见。

我认为已经有很多关于这篇文章的答案了，但你可以使用它，它就像插件一样容易使用，程序员也很容易阅读。发送您的特定日期，并以字符串形式获取其值：

public string RelativeDateTimeCount(DateTime inputDateTime)
{
    string outputDateTime = string.Empty;
    TimeSpan ts = DateTime.Now - inputDateTime;

    if (ts.Days > 7)
    { outputDateTime = inputDateTime.ToString("MMMM d, yyyy"); }

    else if (ts.Days > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Days == 1 ? ("about 1 Day ago") : ("about " + ts.Days.ToString() + " Days ago");
    }
    else if (ts.Hours > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Hours == 1 ? ("an hour ago") : (ts.Hours.ToString() + " hours ago");
    }
    else if (ts.Minutes > 0)
    {
        outputDateTime = ts.Minutes == 1 ? ("1 minute ago") : (ts.Minutes.ToString() + " minutes ago");
    }
    else outputDateTime = "few seconds ago";

    return outputDateTime;
}

使用Fluent DateTime

var dateTime1 = 2.Hours().Ago();
var dateTime2 = 3.Days().Ago();
var dateTime3 = 1.Months().Ago();
var dateTime4 = 5.Hours().FromNow();
var dateTime5 = 2.Weeks().FromNow();
var dateTime6 = 40.Seconds().FromNow();

我也建议在客户端进行计算。服务器工作更少。

以下是我使用的版本（来自Zach Leatherman）

/*
 * Javascript Humane Dates
 * Copyright (c) 2008 Dean Landolt (deanlandolt.com)
 * Re-write by Zach Leatherman (zachleat.com)
 * 
 * Adopted from the John Resig's pretty.js
 * at http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-pretty-date
 * and henrah's proposed modification 
 * at http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-pretty-date/#comment-297458
 * 
 * Licensed under the MIT license.
 */

function humane_date(date_str){
        var time_formats = [
                [60, 'just now'],
                [90, '1 minute'], // 60*1.5
                [3600, 'minutes', 60], // 60*60, 60
                [5400, '1 hour'], // 60*60*1.5
                [86400, 'hours', 3600], // 60*60*24, 60*60
                [129600, '1 day'], // 60*60*24*1.5
                [604800, 'days', 86400], // 60*60*24*7, 60*60*24
                [907200, '1 week'], // 60*60*24*7*1.5
                [2628000, 'weeks', 604800], // 60*60*24*(365/12), 60*60*24*7
                [3942000, '1 month'], // 60*60*24*(365/12)*1.5
                [31536000, 'months', 2628000], // 60*60*24*365, 60*60*24*(365/12)
                [47304000, '1 year'], // 60*60*24*365*1.5
                [3153600000, 'years', 31536000], // 60*60*24*365*100, 60*60*24*365
                [4730400000, '1 century'] // 60*60*24*365*100*1.5
        ];

        var time = ('' + date_str).replace(/-/g,"/").replace(/[TZ]/g," "),
                dt = new Date,
                seconds = ((dt - new Date(time) + (dt.getTimezoneOffset() * 60000)) / 1000),
                token = ' ago',
                i = 0,
                format;

        if (seconds < 0) {
                seconds = Math.abs(seconds);
                token = '';
        }

        while (format = time_formats[i++]) {
                if (seconds < format[0]) {
                        if (format.length == 2) {
                                return format[1] + (i > 1 ? token : ''); // Conditional so we don't return Just Now Ago
                        } else {
                                return Math.round(seconds / format[2]) + ' ' + format[1] + (i > 1 ? token : '');
                        }
                }
        }

        // overflow for centuries
        if(seconds > 4730400000)
                return Math.round(seconds / 4730400000) + ' centuries' + token;

        return date_str;
};

if(typeof jQuery != 'undefined') {
        jQuery.fn.humane_dates = function(){
                return this.each(function(){
                        var date = humane_date(this.title);
                        if(date && jQuery(this).text() != date) // don't modify the dom if we don't have to
                                jQuery(this).text(date);
                });
        };
}