Example. Prettily-formatted dates can improve a program. To display usable relative and pretty dates, you need to calculate the time elapsed from the original date.
So The method here receives the original DateTime, and then uses DateTime.Now to calculate the elapsed time.
Detail The first steps in the GetPrettyDate method take the elapsed days and seconds from the original date.
Detail Here we handle recent dates, in the same day. There is a chain of conditionals that return pretty strings.
Detail Finally, we handle more distant dates. The method here doesn't handle months and years.
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// Test 90 seconds ago.
Console.WriteLine(GetPrettyDate( DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(-90)));
// Test 25 minutes ago.
Console.WriteLine(GetPrettyDate( DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-25)));
// Test 45 minutes ago.
Console.WriteLine(GetPrettyDate( DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(-45)));
// Test 4 hours ago.
Console.WriteLine(GetPrettyDate( DateTime.Now.AddHours(-4)));
// Test 15 days ago.
Console.WriteLine(GetPrettyDate( DateTime.Now.AddDays(-15)));
}
static string GetPrettyDate(DateTime d)
{
// 1.
// Get time span elapsed since the date.
TimeSpan s = DateTime.Now.Subtract(d);
// 2.
// Get total number of days elapsed.
int dayDiff = (int)s.TotalDays;
// 3.
// Get total number of seconds elapsed.
int secDiff = (int)s.TotalSeconds;
// 4.
// Don't allow out of range values.
if (dayDiff < 0 || dayDiff >= 31)
{
return null;
}
// 5.
// Handle same-day times.
if (dayDiff == 0)
{
// A.
// Less than one minute ago.
if (secDiff < 60)
{
return "just now";
}
// B.
// Less than 2 minutes ago.
if (secDiff < 120)
{
return "1 minute ago";
}
// C.
// Less than one hour ago.
if (secDiff < 3600)
{
return string.Format("{0} minutes ago",
Math.Floor((double)secDiff / 60));
}
// D.
// Less than 2 hours ago.
if (secDiff < 7200)
{
return "1 hour ago";
}
// E.
// Less than one day ago.
if (secDiff < 86400)
{
return string.Format("{0} hours ago",
Math.Floor((double)secDiff / 3600));
}
}
// 6.
// Handle previous days.
if (dayDiff == 1)
{
return "yesterday";
}
if (dayDiff < 7)
{
return string.Format("{0} days ago",
dayDiff);
}
if (dayDiff < 31)
{
return string.Format("{0} weeks ago",
Math.Ceiling((double)dayDiff / 7));
}
return null;
}
}1 minute ago
25 minutes ago
45 minutes ago
4 hours ago
3 weeks ago
A summary. We looked at how to display well-formatted and human-readable pretty dates. This code is mainly a finishing touch for your applications. It can help complete a project.
Dot Net Perls is a collection of tested code examples. Pages are continually updated to stay current, with code correctness a top priority.
Sam Allen is passionate about computer languages. In the past, his work has been recommended by Apple and Microsoft and he has studied computers at a selective university in the United States.
This page was last updated on Sep 24, 2022 (rewrite).