# How to convert a "time difference" into "x days, y hours..."

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 11, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694 "2010-04-11T17:48:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tharrisx)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694/1 "2010-04-11T17:48:22Z")

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Hi there,

how can I convert something like…

future\_datetime - past\_datetime (which results in a float)

into something like…

“21 days, 2 hours, 53 minutes, 1 seconds” ?

Does RoR have any nifty helper for this ?

Thanks a lot for any hint!  
Tom

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**Author:** ![tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tharrisx)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694/2 "2010-04-11T18:05:09Z")

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On Apr 11, 4:48 pm, Tom Ha [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hi there,
> 
> how can I convert something like…
> 
> future\_datetime - past\_datetime (which results in a float)
> 
> into something like…
> 
> “21 days, 2 hours, 53 minutes, 1 seconds” ?

Have a look at distance\_of\_time\_in\_words

> **[ActionView::Helpers::DateHelper](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html#M001695)**
>
> Action View Date Helpers The Date Helper primarily creates select/option tags for different kinds of dates and times or date and time elements.

Fred

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tharrisx)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694/3 "2010-04-11T18:05:45Z")

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> Does RoR have any nifty helper for this ?  
> Not that I know of, but there’s examples out there…

[http://www.google.com/search?q=rails+seconds+to+hours+minutes](http://www.google.com/search?q=rails+seconds+to+hours+minutes)

This one seems to have the days bit…

[http://stufftohelpyouout.blogspot.com/2010/02/seconds-to-days-minutes-hours-seconds.html](http://stufftohelpyouout.blogspot.com/2010/02/seconds-to-days-minutes-hours-seconds.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@tharrisx](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/tharrisx)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-convert-a-time-difference-into-x-days-y-hours/186694/4 "2010-04-11T18:08:04Z")

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Great! Thanks a lot, guys!