Python: user friendly time format

Question

Python: I need to show file modification times in "1 day ago", "two hours ago", format.

Is there something ready to do that? It should be in english

Answer 1

Yes, there is. Or, write your own and tailor it to your needs.

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EDIT Nov 30: Linked function moved into the post as the blog author deleted it.

def pretty_date(time=False):
    """
    Get a datetime object or a int() Epoch timestamp and return a
    pretty string like 'an hour ago', 'Yesterday', '3 months ago',
    'just now', etc
    """
    from datetime import datetime
    now = datetime.now()
    if type(time) is int:
        diff = now - datetime.fromtimestamp(time)
    elif not time:
        diff = now - now
    second_diff = diff.seconds
    day_diff = diff.days

    if day_diff < 0:
        return ''

    if day_diff == 0:
        if second_diff < 10:
            return "just now"
        if second_diff < 60:
            return str(second_diff) + " seconds ago"
        if second_diff < 120:
            return  "a minute ago"
        if second_diff < 3600:
            return str( second_diff / 60 ) + " minutes ago"
        if second_diff < 7200:
            return "an hour ago"
        if second_diff < 86400:
            return str( second_diff / 3600 ) + " hours ago"
    if day_diff == 1:
        return "Yesterday"
    if day_diff < 7:
        return str(day_diff) + " days ago"
    if day_diff < 31:
        return str(day_diff/7) + " weeks ago"
    if day_diff < 365:
        return str(day_diff/30) + " months ago"
    return str(day_diff/365) + " years ago"

Answer 2

In looking for the same thing with the additional requirement that it handle future dates, I found this: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/py-pretty/1

Example code (from site):

from datetime import datetime, timedelta
now = datetime.now()
hrago = now - timedelta(hours=1)
yesterday = now - timedelta(days=1)
tomorrow = now + timedelta(days=1)
dayafter = now + timedelta(days=2)

import pretty
print pretty.date(now)                      # 'now'
print pretty.date(hrago)                    # 'an hour ago'
print pretty.date(hrago, short=True)        # '1h ago'
print pretty.date(hrago, asdays=True)       # 'today'
print pretty.date(yesterday, short=True)    # 'yest'
print pretty.date(tomorrow)                 # 'tomorrow'

Answer 3

I have written a detailed blog post for the solution on http://sunilarora.org/17329071 I am posting a quick snippet here as well.

from datetime import datetime
from dateutil.relativedelta import relativedelta

def get_fancy_time(d, display_full_version = False):
    """Returns a user friendly date format
    d: some datetime instace in the past
    display_second_unit: True/False
    """
    #some helpers lambda's
    plural = lambda x: 's' if x > 1 else ''
    singular = lambda x: x[:-1]
    #convert pluran (years) --> to singular (year)
    display_unit = lambda unit, name: '%s %s%s'%(unit, name, plural(unit)) if unit > 0 else ''

    #time units we are interested in descending order of significance
    tm_units = ['years', 'months', 'days', 'hours', 'minutes', 'seconds']

    rdelta = relativedelta(datetime.utcnow(), d) #capture the date difference
    for idx, tm_unit in enumerate(tm_units):
        first_unit_val = getattr(rdelta, tm_unit)
        if first_unit_val > 0:
            primary_unit = display_unit(first_unit_val, singular(tm_unit))
            if display_full_version and idx < len(tm_units)-1:
                next_unit = tm_units[idx + 1]
                second_unit_val = getattr(rdelta, next_unit)
                if second_unit_val > 0:
                    secondary_unit = display_unit(second_unit_val, singular(next_unit))
                    return primary_unit + ', '  + secondary_unit
            return primary_unit
    return None