how to display date and time nicely?

[selecta]

This is not 100% web2py related but I am sure if this will be answered
many of you will profit at some point from it.

Is there a python module that helps you to display dates and times
nice e.g.

just now (for within the last 5 minutes)
2 hours ago
2 days ago
15th February 2009
...

I guess somebody must have done that already, right?

[mdipierro]

Put this in a model

def prettydate(d):
try:
dt = request.now - d
except:
return ''
if dt.days>=365*2:
return '%s years ago' % int(dt.days/365)
elif dt.days>=365:
return '1 years ago'
elif dt.days>=60:
return '%s months ago' % int(dt.days/30)
elif dt.days>21:
return '1 months ago'
elif dt.days>=14:
return '%s weeks ago' % int(dt.days/7)
elif dt.days>=7:
return '1 week ago'
elif dt.days>=2:
return '%s days ago' % int(dt.days)
elif dt.days==1:
return '1 day ago'
else:
return 'today'

[selecta]

:)

[Richard]

added a few more cases:

def prettydate(d):
try:
dt = datetime.now() - d
except:
return ''
if dt.days >= 2*365:
return '%d years ago' % int(dt.days / 365)
elif dt.days >= 365:
return '1 year ago'
elif dt.days >= 60:
return '%d months ago' % int(dt.days / 30)
elif dt.days > 21:
return '1 month ago'
elif dt.days >= 14:
return '%d weeks ago' % int(dt.days / 7)
elif dt.days >= 7:
return '1 week ago'
elif dt.days > 1:
return '%d days ago' % dt.days
elif dt.days == 1:
return '1 day ago'
elif dt.seconds >= 2*60*60:
return '%d hours ago' % int(dt.seconds / 3600)
elif dt.seconds >= 60*60:
return '1 hour ago'
elif dt.seconds >= 2*60:
return '%d minutes ago' % int(dt.seconds / 60)
elif dt.seconds >= 60:
return '1 minute ago'
elif dt.seconds > 1:
return '%d seconds ago' % dt.seconds
elif dt.seconds == 1:
return '1 second ago'
else:
return 'now'

[mdipierro]

for lack of a better option I put it in tools for now.

[Jason Brower]

These examples would be a very good edition to the book
--
J

[Iceberg]

IMHO, the example's code is good, but not cool enough to be put in the
book. Every programmer saw those ordinary if...elif...elif...else
cliche in their first program language book before. People can
probably write their own if...elif...else in less time, than STFW or
RTFM to find our prettydate().

So, we need some extra flavor to compensate the time a guy spent to
find our prettydate(). How about making it i18n-friendly? Something
like this.

class PrettyDate(object):
def __init__(self,T):
self.T=T #
def __call__(self, d):

dt = datetime.now() - d

if dt.days >= 2*365:
return self.T('%d years ago') % int(dt.days / 365)
elif ...:
......

Then, in the model we can initialize an instance by:
prettydate = PrettyDate(T)
In controller we can do:
prettydate(d)
Of course developers need to localize their own language strings in
their own environment.

Just my $0.02

>

[mdipierro]

the one in gluon tools does

prettydate(request.now,T)