当您知道查看者的时区时，以日为单位使用日历日可能会更清晰。我不熟悉.NET库，所以我不知道如何在C#中实现这一点。

在消费者网站上，你也可以在一分钟内用手洗。“不到一分钟前”或“刚刚”就足够了。

在Java中有没有一种简单的方法可以做到这一点？java.util.Date类似乎相当有限。

下面是我的快速而肮脏的Java解决方案：

import java.util.Date;
import javax.management.timer.Timer;

String getRelativeDate(Date date) {     
  long delta = new Date().getTime() - date.getTime();
  if (delta < 1L * Timer.ONE_MINUTE) {
    return toSeconds(delta) == 1 ? "one second ago" : toSeconds(delta) + " seconds ago";
  }
  if (delta < 2L * Timer.ONE_MINUTE) {
    return "a minute ago";
  }
  if (delta < 45L * Timer.ONE_MINUTE) {
    return toMinutes(delta) + " minutes ago";
  }
  if (delta < 90L * Timer.ONE_MINUTE) {
    return "an hour ago";
  }
  if (delta < 24L * Timer.ONE_HOUR) {
    return toHours(delta) + " hours ago";
  }
  if (delta < 48L * Timer.ONE_HOUR) {
    return "yesterday";
  }
  if (delta < 30L * Timer.ONE_DAY) {
    return toDays(delta) + " days ago";
  }
  if (delta < 12L * 4L * Timer.ONE_WEEK) { // a month
    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 long toSeconds(long date) {
  return date / 1000L;
}

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

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

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

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

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

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);
    }
}

如果您想获得类似“2天4小时12分钟前”的输出，则需要一个时间跨度：

TimeSpan timeDiff = DateTime.Now-CreatedDate;

然后您可以访问您喜欢的值：

timeDiff.Days
timeDiff.Hours

等

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();
}

Jeff，您的代码很好，但使用常量可以更清晰（如代码完成中所建议的）。

const int SECOND = 1;
const int MINUTE = 60 * SECOND;
const int HOUR = 60 * MINUTE;
const int DAY = 24 * HOUR;
const int MONTH = 30 * DAY;

var ts = new TimeSpan(DateTime.UtcNow.Ticks - yourDate.Ticks);
double delta = Math.Abs(ts.TotalSeconds);

if (delta < 1 * MINUTE)
  return ts.Seconds == 1 ? "one second ago" : ts.Seconds + " seconds ago";

if (delta < 2 * MINUTE)
  return "a minute ago";

if (delta < 45 * MINUTE)
  return ts.Minutes + " minutes ago";

if (delta < 90 * MINUTE)
  return "an hour ago";

if (delta < 24 * HOUR)
  return ts.Hours + " hours ago";

if (delta < 48 * HOUR)
  return "yesterday";

if (delta < 30 * DAY)
  return ts.Days + " days ago";

if (delta < 12 * MONTH)
{
  int months = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 30));
  return months <= 1 ? "one month ago" : months + " months ago";
}
else
{
  int years = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Floor((double)ts.Days / 365));
  return years <= 1 ? "one year ago" : years + " years ago";
}