ios - Swift display time ago from Date (NSDate)

Question

In a cell I want to display the time ago from the NSDate in the Parse server. Here is the code but its not working. Nothing is changing, and the data isn't being parsed.

    if let createdat = (object?["createdAt"] as? String){
            let pastDate = Date(timeIntervalSinceNow: TimeInterval(createdat)!)
            cell.TimeAgo.text = pastDate.timeAgoDisplay()
        }


       extension Date {
          func timeAgoDisplay() -> String {
        let secondsAgo = Int(Date().timeIntervalSince(self))

        let minute = 60
        let hour = 60 * minute
        let day = 24 * hour
        let week = 7 * day

        if secondsAgo < minute {
            return "(secondsAgo) sec ago"
        } else if secondsAgo < hour {
            return "(secondsAgo / minute) min ago"
        } else if secondsAgo < day {
            return "(secondsAgo / hour) hrs ago"
        } else if secondsAgo < week {
            return "(secondsAgo / day) days ago"
        }

        return "(secondsAgo / week) weeks ago"
    }
}

Answer 1

If you just want a Time Ago extension for Date go to the bottom of the answer ??

I'll show you an example just to get seconds ago and after I'll show your extension updated.

Note: you can use directly the date from Pase if you want:

if let pastDate = (object?["createdAt"] as? Date) {
    cell.TimeAgo.text = pastDate.timeAgoDisplay()
}

Swift 5.1

Example how to display seconds ago with Swift 5.1:

Since iOS13 Apple introduce a new class RelativeDateTimeFormatter

extension Date {
    func timeAgoDisplay() -> String {
        let formatter = RelativeDateTimeFormatter()
        formatter.unitsStyle = .full
        return formatter.localizedString(for: self, relativeTo: Date())
    }
}

This class will allow you to get a time ago string based on your language. It automatically select the right unit of time based on your interval, here is an example:

|--------------------------|------------------|
| Time interval in seconds |      Display     |
|--------------------------|------------------|
|             -6           |   6 seconds ago  |
|            -60           |   1 minute ago   |
|           -600           |  10 minutes ago  |
|          -6000           |    1 hour ago    |
|         -60000           |   16 hours ago   |
|--------------------------|------------------|

You'll notice that it handle automatically plurals for you.

Swift 3 or Swift 4

Example how to get seconds ago with Swift 3 or Swift 4:

First: To get the number of seconds ago we need to check if we have one minutes or less, to get the current Date minus one minute you can write that:

let minuteAgo = calendar.date(byAdding: .minute, value: -1, to: Date())!

Second: Now compare the 2 dates! (In the case of your extension we replace yourDate by self) and get the difference between this 2 dates.

if (minuteAgo < yourDate) {
    let diff = Calendar.current.dateComponents([.second], from: yourDate, to: Date()).second ?? 0
    print("(diff) sec ago")
}

That's all, now you can print the time ago !

So your extension is like this: (This is a simple extension to get the time ago)

extension 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"
    }
}

To use it, this is very straightforward:

var now = Date()
now.timeAgoDisplay()