had to create own .reverse method as the ms - .reverse.tostring doesn't return what i would have liked it to... and excuse the use of the mid() function in the reverseIt dependancy, as it was carried over from vb6 days :p
Public Function RealTimeUntilNow(ByVal dt As DateTime, Optional ByVal bAllowSegments As Byte = 2) As String
' bAllowSegments identifies how many segments to show... ie: if 3, then return string would be (as an example)...
' "3 years, 2 months and 13 days" the top 3 time categories are returned, if bAllowSegments is 2 it would return
' "3 years and 2 months" and if 6 (maximum value) would return "3 years, 2 months, 13 days, 13 hours, 29 minutes and 9 seconds"
Dim rYears, rMonths, rDays, rHours, rMinutes, rSeconds As Int16
Dim dtNow = DateTime.Now
Dim daysInBaseMonth = Date.DaysInMonth(dt.Year, dt.Month)
rYears = dtNow.Year - dt.Year
rMonths = dtNow.Month - dt.Month
If rMonths < 0 Then rMonths += 12 : rYears -= 1 ' add 1 year to months, and remove 1 year from years.
rDays = dtNow.Day - dt.Day
If rDays < 0 Then rDays += daysInBaseMonth : rMonths -= 1
rHours = dtNow.Hour - dt.Hour
If rHours < 0 Then rHours += 24 : rDays -= 1
rMinutes = dtNow.Minute - dt.Minute
If rMinutes < 0 Then rMinutes += 60 : rHours -= 1
rSeconds = dtNow.Second - dt.Second
If rSeconds < 0 Then rSeconds += 60 : rMinutes -= 1
' this is the display functionality
Dim sb As StringBuilder = New StringBuilder()
Dim iSegmentsAdded As Int16 = 0
If rYears > 0 Then sb.Append(rYears) : sb.Append(" year" & If(rYears <> 1, "s", "") & ", ") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
If bAllowSegments = iSegmentsAdded Then GoTo parseAndReturn
If rMonths > 0 Then sb.AppendFormat(rMonths) : sb.Append(" month" & If(rMonths <> 1, "s", "") & ", ") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
If bAllowSegments = iSegmentsAdded Then GoTo parseAndReturn
If rDays > 0 Then sb.Append(rDays) : sb.Append(" day" & If(rDays <> 1, "s", "") & ", ") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
If bAllowSegments = iSegmentsAdded Then GoTo parseAndReturn
If rHours > 0 Then sb.Append(rHours) : sb.Append(" hour" & If(rHours <> 1, "s", "") & ", ") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
If bAllowSegments = iSegmentsAdded Then GoTo parseAndReturn
If rMinutes > 0 Then sb.Append(rMinutes) : sb.Append(" minute" & If(rMinutes <> 1, "s", "") & ", ") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
If bAllowSegments = iSegmentsAdded Then GoTo parseAndReturn
If rSeconds > 0 Then sb.Append(rSeconds) : sb.Append(" second" & If(rSeconds <> 1, "s", "") & "") : iSegmentsAdded += 1
parseAndReturn:
' if the string is entirely empty, that means it was just posted so its less than a second ago, and an empty string getting passed will cause an error
' so we construct our own meaningful string which will still fit into the "Posted * ago " syntax...
If sb.ToString = "" Then sb.Append("less than 1 second")
Return ReplaceLast(sb.ToString.TrimEnd(" ", ",").ToString, ",", " and")
End Function
<Extension()> _
Public Function ReplaceLast(ByVal sReplacable As String, ByVal sReplaceWhat As String, ByVal sReplaceWith As String) As String
' let empty string arguments run, incase we dont know if we are sending and empty string or not.
sReplacable = sReplacable.ReverseIt
sReplacable = Replace(sReplacable, sReplaceWhat.ReverseIt, sReplaceWith.ReverseIt, , 1) ' only does first item on reversed version!
Return sReplacable.ReverseIt.ToString
End Function
<Extension()> _
Public Function ReverseIt(ByVal strS As String, Optional ByVal n As Integer = -1) As String
Dim strTempX As String = "", intI As Integer
If n > strS.Length Or n = -1 Then n = strS.Length
For intI = n To 1 Step -1
strTempX = strTempX + Mid(strS, intI, 1)
Next intI
ReverseIt = strTempX + Right(strS, Len(strS) - n)
End Function
Erx_VB.NExT.Coder
2009-12-16 17:42:13