dotiw 
The dotiw library that adds distance_of_time_in_words to any Ruby project, or overrides the default implementation in Rails with more accurate output.
Do you crave accuracy down to the second? So do I. That's why I made this gem.
Install
Add to your Gemfile.
gem 'dotiw'
Run bundle install.
Pure Ruby
require 'dotiw'
include DOTIW::Methods
Rails
require 'dotiw'
include ActionView::Helpers::DateHelper
include ActionView::Helpers::TextHelper
include ActionView::Helpers::NumberHelper
distance_of_time_in_words
Take this for a totally kick-ass example:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 3.weeks + 4.days + 5.hours + 6.minutes + 7.seconds, true)
=> "1 year, 2 months, 3 weeks, 4 days, 5 hours, 6 minutes, and 7 seconds"
Also if one of the measurement is zero it will not output it:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 5.hours + 6.minutes + 7.seconds, true)
=> "1 year, 2 months, 4 days, 6 minutes, and 7 seconds"
Better than "about 1 year", am I right? Of course I am.
"But Ryan!", you say, "What happens if the time is only in seconds but because of the default the seconds aren't shown? Won't it be blank?" "No!" I triumphantly reply:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.second, false)
=> "1 second"
The third argument for this method is whether or not to include seconds. By default this is false (because in Rails' distance_of_time_in_words it is), you can turn it on though by passing true as the third argument:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 1.second, true)
=> "1 year, and 1 second"
Yes this could just be merged into the options hash but I'm leaving it here to ensure "backwards-compatibility", because that's just an insanely radical thing to do. \m/
The last argument is an optional options hash that can be used to manipulate behavior and (which uses to_sentence).
Don't like having to pass in Time.now all the time? Then use time_ago_in_words which also will rock your
world:
>> time_ago_in_words(Time.now + 3.days + 1.second)
=> "3 days, and 1 second"
Oh, and did I mention it supports I18n? Oh yeah. Rock on!
Options
:locale
You can pass in a locale and it'll output it in whatever language you want (provided you have translations, otherwise it'll default to your app's default locale (the config.i18n.default_locale you have set in /config/application.rb):
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.minute, false, locale: :es)
=> "1 minuto"
This will also be passed to to_sentence.
:vague
Specify this if you want it to use the old distance_of_time_in_words. The value can be anything except nil or false.
:accumulate_on
Specifies the maximum output unit which will accumulate all the surplus. Say you set it to seconds and your time difference is of 2 minutes then the output would be 120 seconds.
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 2.hours + 70.seconds, true, accumulate_on: :minutes)
=> "121 minutes and 10 seconds"
:only
Only want a specific measurement of time? No problem!
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, false, only: :minutes)
=> "1 minute"
You only want some? No problem too!
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.day + 1.minute, false, only: [:minutes, :hours])
=> "1 hour and 1 minute"
:except
Don't want a measurement of time? No problem!
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, false, except: :minutes)
=> "1 hour"
Culling a whole group of measurements of time:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.day + 1.minute, false, except: [:minutes, :hours])
=> "1 day"
:highest_measure_only
For times when Rails distance_of_time_in_words is not precise enough and DOTIW is too precise. For instance, if you only want to know the highest time part (measure) that elapsed between two dates.
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, highest_measure_only: true)
=> "1 hour"
Notice how minutes and seconds were removed from the output. Another example:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.minute + 1.second, true, highest_measure_only: true)
=> "1 minute"
Minutes are the highest measure, so seconds were discarded from the output.
:highest_measures
When you want variable precision from DOTIW:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, highest_measures: 2)
=> "1 hour and 1 minute"
:words_connector
This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ', '.
Using something other than a comma:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, words_connector: ' - ')
=> "1 hour - 1 minute, and 1 second"
:two_words_connector
This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ' and '.
Using something other than 'and':
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute, true, two_words_connector: ' plus ')
=> "1 hour plus 1 minute"
:last_word_connector
This is an option for to_sentence, defaults to ', and '.
Using something other than ', and':
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 1.hour + 1.minute + 1.second, true, last_word_connector: ', finally ')
=> "1 hour, 1 minute, finally 1 second"
distance_of_time
If you have simply a number of seconds you can get the "stringified" version of this by using distance_of_time:
>> distance_of_time(300)
=> "5 minutes"
distance_of_time_in_words_hash
Don't like any format you're given? That's cool too! Here, have an indifferent hash version:
>> distance_of_time_in_words_hash(Time.now, Time.now + 1.year + 2.months + 3.weeks + 4.days + 5.hours + 6.minutes + 7.seconds)
=> { days: 4, weeks: 3, seconds: 7, minutes: 6, years: 1, hours: 5, months: 2 }
Indifferent means that you can access all keys by their String or Symbol version.
distance_of_time_in_percent
This method is only available with Rails ActionView.
If you want to calculate a distance of time in percent, use distance_of_time_in_percent. The first argument is the beginning time, the second argument the "current" time and the third argument is the end time.
>> distance_of_time_in_percent("04-12-2009".to_time, "29-01-2010".to_time, "04-12-2010".to_time)
=> '15%'
This method takes the same options as number_with_precision.
>> distance_of_time_in_percent("04-12-2009".to_time, "29-01-2010".to_time, "04-12-2010".to_time, precision: 1)
=> '15.3%'
:compact
Pressed for space? Try compact: true.
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 2.year + 1.day + 1.second, compact: true)
=> "2y1d"
Pairs well with words_connector, last_word_connector, and two_words_connector if you can spare just a little more room:
>> distance_of_time_in_words(Time.now, Time.now + 5.years + 1.day + 23.seconds, words_connector: " ", last_word_connector: " ", two_words_connector: " ", compact: true)
=> "5y 1d 23s"