dotiw

dotiw is a plugin for Rails that overrides the default distance_of_time_in_words and provides a more accurate output. Do you crave accuracy down to the second? So do I. That's why I made this plugin. Take this for a totally kickass example:

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 3.days + 4.hours + 5.minutes + 6.seconds, true)
=> "1 year, 2 months, 3 days, 4 hours, 5 minutes, and 6 seconds"

Also if one of the measurement is zero it will not output it:

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 4.hours + 5.minutes + 6.seconds, true)
=> "1 year, 2 months, 4 hours, 5 minutes, and 6 seconds"

Better than "about 1 year", am I right? Of course I am.

This takes the same options plus an additional one on the end for passing options to the output (which uses to_sentence).

Oh, and did I mention it supports I18n? Oh yeah.

distance_of_time_in_words_hash

Don't like any format you're given? That's cool too! Here, have an indifferent hash version:

>> distance_of_time_in_words_hash(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 3.days + 4.hours + 5.minutes + 6.seconds)
=> {"days"=>3, "seconds"=>6, "minutes"=>5, "years"=>1, "hours"=>4, "months"=>2}

Indiferrent means that you can access all keys by their String or Symbol version.

Options

:locale

The keys can be in your local language too:

>> distance_of_time_in_words_hash(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 3.days + 4.hours + 5.minutes + 6.seconds, :locale => "es")
=> {"horas"=>4, "días"=>3, "minutos"=>5, "segundos"=>6, "años"=>1, "meses"=>2}

You are not guaranteed the order of the hash in Ruby 1.8.

distance_of_time_in_words

Options

The third argument for this method is whether or not to include seconds. By default this is false (because in Rails' distance_of_time_in_words it is), you can turn it on though by passing true as the third argument:

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 1.second, true)
=> "1 year, and 1 second" 

Yes this could just be merged into the options hash but I'm leaving it here to ensure "backwards-compatibility".

:vague

Specify this if you want it to use the old distance_of_time_in_words. The value can be anything except nil or false.

:locale

You can pass in a locale and it'll output it in whatever language you want (provided you have translations, otherwise it'll default to English):

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.minute, false, :locale => "es")
=> "1 minuto"

This will also be passed to to_sentence

:only

Note that values passed into this option must be passed in as strings!

Only want a specific measurement of time? No problem!

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, false, :only => "minutes")
=> "1 minute"

You only want some? No problem too!

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.day + 1.minute, false, :only => ["minutes", "hours"])
=> "1 hour and 1 minute"

:except

Note that values passed into this option must be passed in as strings!

Don't want a measurement of time? No problem!

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, false, :except => "minutes")
=> "1 hour"

Culling a whole group of measurements of time:

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.day + 1.minute, false, :except => ["minutes", "hours"])
=> "1 day"

:words_connector

This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ', '

Using something other than a comma:

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, { :words_connector => ' - ' })
=> "1 hour - 1 minute, and 1 second"

:two_words_connector

This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ' and '

Using something other than 'and':

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, true, { :two_words_connector => ' plus ' })
=> "1 hour plus 1 minute"

:last_word_connector

This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ', and '

Using something other than ', and':

>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, { :last_word_connector => ', finally ' })
=> "1 hour, 1 minute, finally 1 second"

Contributors

chendo - for talking through it with me and drawing on the whiteboard Derander - correct Spanish translations