Title: Human Time Function Help
Last modified: August 19, 2016

---

# Human Time Function Help

 *  [sahaskatta](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sahaskatta/)
 * (@sahaskatta)
 * [15 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/human-time-function-help/)
 * I checked out the native [human_time_diff](http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/human_time_diff)
   function in WP, but I need some help.
 * The example on that page is the following:
    `<?php echo human_time_diff(get_the_time('
   U'), current_time('timestamp')) . ' ago'; ?>`
 * It shows the timestamp in relative to “days”. How can I tweak it to automatically
   switch between the following pseudocode:
 *     ```
       if time < 1 hour
       echo minutes
       elseif time < 1 day
       echo hours
       elseif time < 7 days
       echo days
       elseif time < 30 days
       echo weeks
       elseif time < 365 days
       echo months
       elseif time >- 365 days
       echo years
       ```
   
 * I’m aware that there are plugins, but I’m trying to keep bloat minimal by writing
   a simple function that I can throw into functions.php. Could someone please give
   me a example of how to tweak that?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  [viper007bond](https://wordpress.org/support/users/viper007bond/)
 * (@viper007bond)
 * [15 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/human-time-function-help/#post-1732138)
 * There’s a more powerful version of `human_time_diff()` sitting on Trac:
 * [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9272](http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/9272)
   
   [http://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/9272/9272.patch](http://core.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/9272/9272.patch)
 * Here it is in non-patch form:
 * [http://wordpress.pastebin.com/11Rr8Sn4](http://wordpress.pastebin.com/11Rr8Sn4)
 * Just copy/paste that into `functions.php` and rename the function to something
   else to avoid colliding with the original.
 *  Thread Starter [sahaskatta](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sahaskatta/)
 * (@sahaskatta)
 * [15 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/human-time-function-help/#post-1732274)
 * Just to make things simpler for those looking for help, here’s how I managed 
   to get it to work. (Thanks to Alex)
 * 1) Grab the code from the pastebin link above.
    2) Paste it into `functions.php`
   3) Rename the function from `human_time_diff` to `relative_time` 4) Look for 
   the place you normally use `<?php the_time(); ?>` 5) Replace it with `<?php echo
   relative_time(get_the_time('U'), current_time('timestamp')) . ' ago'; ?>`
 * This will automatically produce nearly perfect results for “time ago” dates taking
   seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years into account.
 *  [rhythmdoctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhythmdoctor/)
 * (@rhythmdoctor)
 * [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/human-time-function-help/#post-1732527)
 * Thank you – This was perfect. Was looking for an answer on this for days 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Human Time Function Help’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [relative time](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/relative-time/)
 * [time](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/time/)
 * [time since](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/time-since/)

 * 3 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [rhythmdoctor](https://wordpress.org/support/users/rhythmdoctor/)
 * Last activity: [14 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/human-time-function-help/#post-1732527)
 * Status: not resolved

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