# Nice date function

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 13, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767 "2007-01-13T04:57:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/1 "2007-01-13T04:57:56Z")

</div>

Hi:

you know the way the google and this forum presents dates? How it’s  
measure from the current date/time and presents nicely as “39 minutes  
ago”, 2 days ago, etc.? Has anyone done a gem or other library object  
that I can get to do those types of dates?

Thanks so much in advance!

Mike

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2007, 5:40am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/2 "2007-01-13T05:40:37Z")

</div>

Have a look at DateHelper. I think the method you want is  
“time\_ago\_in\_words”.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/3 "2007-01-19T16:29:56Z")

</div>

On Jan 13, 2007, at 04:57 , Mike D. wrote:

> you know the way the google and this forum presents dates? How it’s  
> measure from the current date/time and presents nicely as “39 minutes  
> ago”, 2 days ago, etc.? Has anyone done a gem or other library object  
> that I can get to do those types of dates?

Look up distance\_of\_time\_ago\_in\_words in the Rails API reference.

–  
Jakob S. - [http://mentalized.net](http://mentalized.net)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/4 "2007-01-19T16:30:22Z")

</div>

There is also a seperate gem call Chronic,  
[http://chronic.rubyforge.org](http://chronic.rubyforge.org), it you ever need to use this outside of  
rails.

Jake

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/5 "2007-01-19T16:31:09Z")

</div>

There is also a seperate gem call Chronic,  
[http://chronic.rubyforge.org](http://chronic.rubyforge.org), it you ever need to use this outside of  
rails.

Jake

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [September 25, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/6 "2007-09-25T22:31:35Z")

</div>

OMG! How sweet is rails… You’ve got to be kidding me!

Thank you so much!

Mike

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@miked](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/miked)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2007, 4:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/nice-date-function/81767/7 "2007-01-19T16:31:41Z")

</div>

> you know the way the google and this forum presents dates? How it’s  
> measure from the current date/time and presents nicely as “39 minutes  
> ago”, 2 days ago, etc.? Has anyone done a gem or other library object  
> that I can get to do those types of dates?

It’s builtin to Rails…

time\_ago\_in\_words()

[http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html#M000467](http://api.rubyonrails.com/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html#M000467)

-philip