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Author: Russell Ballestrini

Classifiers

What are human readable timedeltas?

The ago.py module makes customizable human readable timedeltas. For example:

Testing past tense:

Russell commented 1 year, 127 days, 16 hours ago
You replied 1 year, 127 days ago

Testing future tense:

Program will shutdown in 2 days, 3 hours, 27 minutes
Job will run 2 days, 3 hours from now

Installation

There are a number of ways to install this package.

You could run this ad hoc command:

pip install ago

or specify ago under the setup_requires list within your setuptools-compatible project’s setup.py file.

How to Use

The ago module comes with the following functions:

human: Convert a datetime or timedelta to a human-readable string
delta2dict: Convert a timedelta to a dictionary of units
extract_components: Extract time components from a timedelta (builds on delta2dict)
format_components: Format time components into a readable string
get_delta_from_subject: Convert various input types to a timedelta

Basic Usage

The primary function you’ll use is human:

from ago import human
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

# With a datetime object
db_date = datetime(year=2010, month=5, day=4, hour=6, minute=54, second=33)
print('Created ' + human(db_date))  # "Created X years, Y months ago"

# With a timedelta object
delta = timedelta(days=5, hours=3, minutes=45)
print('Due in ' + human(delta))  # "Due in 5 days, 3 hours"

Function Arguments

The human function accepts the following arguments:

human(subject, precision=2, past_tense='{} ago', future_tense='in {}', abbreviate=False)

subject: A datetime, timedelta, or timestamp (integer/float) object to be converted to a human-readable string.
precision (default: 2): The desired amount of unit precision.
past_tense (default: '{} ago'): The format string used for a past timedelta.
future_tense (default: 'in {}'): The format string used for a future timedelta.
abbreviate (default: False): Boolean flag to abbreviate units.

Examples

Basic usage with different precisions:

from ago import human
from datetime import datetime

# Pretend this was stored in a database
db_date = datetime(year=2010, month=5, day=4, hour=6, minute=54, second=33)

# To find out how long ago, use the human function
print('Created ' + human(db_date))  # "Created X years, Y months ago"

# Optionally pass a precision
print('Created ' + human(db_date, 3))  # Shows 3 units (e.g., years, months, days)
print('Created ' + human(db_date, 6))  # Shows up to 6 units

Future dates and times:

from ago import human
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

PRESENT = datetime.now()
FUTURE = PRESENT + timedelta(days=2, seconds=12447, microseconds=963)

print(human(FUTURE))  # "in 2 days, 3 hours"

Custom format strings:

from ago import human
from datetime import datetime, timedelta

PRESENT = datetime.now()
PAST = PRESENT - timedelta(days=492, seconds=58711, microseconds=45)
FUTURE = PRESENT + timedelta(days=2, seconds=12447, microseconds=963)

output1 = human(
    PAST,
    past_tense='titanic sunk {} ago',
    future_tense='titanic will sink in {} from now'
)
# "titanic sunk 1 year, 127 days ago"

output2 = human(
    FUTURE,
    past_tense='titanic sunk {} ago',
    future_tense='titanic will sink in {} from now'
)
# "titanic will sink in 2 days, 3 hours from now"

Using abbreviations:

from ago import human
from datetime import timedelta

print(human(timedelta(days=5, hours=3, minutes=45), abbreviate=True))
# "5d, 3h ago"

Advanced Usage

For more advanced use cases, you can utilize the other functions.

Getting a dictionary of time units:

from ago import delta2dict
from datetime import timedelta

delta = timedelta(days=400, hours=5, minutes=30)
time_dict = delta2dict(delta)
# Returns {"year": 1, "day": 35, "hour": 5, "minute": 30, "second": 0, ...}

Extracting non-zero time components:

from ago import extract_components
from datetime import timedelta

delta = timedelta(days=400, hours=5, minutes=30)
components = extract_components(delta)
# Returns a list of components:
# [{"unit": "year", "abbr": "y", "value": 1},
#  {"unit": "day", "abbr": "d", "value": 35}, ...]

Formatting time components:

from ago import extract_components, format_components
from datetime import timedelta

delta = timedelta(days=400, hours=5, minutes=30)
components = extract_components(delta)
formatted = format_components(components, precision=3, abbreviate=True)
# "1y, 35d, 5h"