[Tip] Date difference written out

by David Workman
Data Mosaic

If this article didn't give you enough to think about regarding dates for a year here's a short bit of code that writes out in readable language the difference between two dates.

It's somewhat better than returning to a user 4,234,673 milliseconds!

if (rec_created && date_logout) {

    //set up divisors
    var divDays = 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24
    var divHours = 1000 * 60 * 60
    var divMinutes = 1000 * 60
    var divSeconds = 1000
    
    //total time in milliseconds
    var totalTime = date_logout - rec_created
    
    //compute each value
    var days = Math.floor((totalTime / divDays))
    var hours = Math.floor((totalTime % divDays) / divHours)    
    var minutes = Math.floor((totalTime % divHours) / divMinutes)
    var seconds = Math.floor((totalTime % divMinutes) / divSeconds)
    
    //display only values that are more than zero
    var display = (days) ? days + " days " : ""
    display += (hours) ? hours + " hours " : display
    display += (minutes) ? minutes + " minutes " : display
    display += (seconds) ? seconds + " seconds" : display
    
    return display

}
else {
    return null
}