Using WordPress ‘human_time_diff()’ PHP function

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The human_time_diff() WordPress PHP function determines the difference between two timestamps and returns it in a human-readable format such as “1 hour”, “5 mins”, or “2 days”.

Usage

echo human_time_diff( $from, $to );

Input:

  • $from: Unix timestamp from which the difference begins.
  • $to: Unix timestamp to end the time difference (optional, defaults to current time if not set).

Output:

  • A string with a human-readable time difference.

Parameters

  • $from (int) – Required. Unix timestamp from which the difference begins.
  • $to (int) – Optional. Unix timestamp to end the time difference. Default becomes time() if not set.

More information

See WordPress Developer Resources: human_time_diff

Examples

Displaying the time difference between post creation and last modification

// Get posted and last modified time
$lastmodified = get_the_modified_time('U');
$posted = get_the_time('U');

// Display the time difference
echo "Posted " . human_time_diff($posted, current_time('U')) . " ago<br>";
if ($lastmodified > $posted) {
    echo "Edited " . human_time_diff($lastmodified, current_time('U')) . " ago";
}

Displaying the time since a post was published

echo esc_html(human_time_diff(get_the_time('U'), current_time('timestamp'))) . " ago";

Internationalized version of the time since a post was published

printf(_x('%1$s ago', '%2$s = human-readable time difference', 'wpdocs_textdomain'), human_time_diff(get_the_time('U'), current_time('timestamp')));

Displaying the time since a post was last modified

printf(esc_html__('%s ago', 'textdomain'), human_time_diff(get_the_modified_time('U'), strtotime(wp_date('Y-m-d H:i:s'))));

Displaying the time since a comment was posted

printf(_x('%1$s ago', '%2$s = human-readable time difference', 'wpdocs_textdomain'), human_time_diff(get_comment_time('U'), current_time('timestamp')));