In this short article we will see how you can display the time ago from a given date. This can be useful inside a chat or inside a social network application.
Since Swift 5.1 Apple provide a new formatter called RelativeDateTimeFormatter. With that API you are able to display a relative date in a human readable format. This formatter also support localization.
Here a code example:
```swiftlet formatter = RelativeDateTimeFormatter()formatter.unitsStyle = .full
let now = Date()
// 2 hours agolet twoHoursAgo = Calendar.current.date(byAdding: .hour, value: -2, to: now)!let result = formatter.localizedString(for: twoHoursAgo, relativeTo: now)print(result) // "2 hours ago"```
You can also change the unitsStyle to .abbreviated to have a shorter result.
Before Swift 5.1 you need to do it manually. Here is a simple extension to handle this:
```swiftextension Date { func timeAgoDisplay() -> String { let calendar = Calendar.current let minuteAgo = calendar.date(byAdding: .minute, value: -1, to: Date())! let hourAgo = calendar.date(byAdding: .hour, value: -1, to: Date())! let dayAgo = calendar.date(byAdding: .day, value: -1, to: Date())! let weekAgo = calendar.date(byAdding: .day, value: -7, to: Date())!
if minuteAgo < self { let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.second], from: self, to: Date()).second ?? 0 return "\(diff) sec ago" } else if hourAgo < self { let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.minute], from: self, to: Date()).minute ?? 0 return "\(diff) min ago" } else if dayAgo < self { let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.hour], from: self, to: Date()).hour ?? 0 return "\(diff) hrs ago" } else if weekAgo < self { let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.day], from: self, to: Date()).day ?? 0 return "\(diff) days ago" } let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.weekOfYear], from: self, to: Date()).weekOfYear ?? 0 return "\(diff) weeks ago" }}```
This extension on Date gives you a timeAgoDisplay() method that returns a human readable string like "2 hrs ago" or "3 days ago" depending on how far back the date is.
