How to get the Time like facebook post eg. 1sec ago or 3hrs ago, In android application

Question

I have developed an application where the user receives the message from other application user. I want to just show the time like Facebook, eg. 1sec ago or 3Hrs ago. Something in this fashion. I tried a code from one of our Fellow S.O expert but that code seems to misbehave. Here's the code which i used in my app.

static SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy-MM-dd hh:mm:ss");
    static int[] steps = { 1, 60, 3600, 3600 * 24 };
    static String[] names = { "sec", "mins", "hrs", "days" };
public static String formatDelay(String date) {
        try {
            Date d = sdf.parse(date);
            Long stamp = d.getTime();
            Calendar c = Calendar.getInstance();

             Long now = System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000;

            Format format = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy MM dd HH:mm:ss");
            String time = format.format(now);
            Long dif = now - stamp;
            dif = dif / 1000;
            if (stamp > now)
                return "";

            for (int i = 0; i < steps.length; i++) {
                if (dif < steps[i]) {
                    String output = Long.toString(dif / steps[i - 1]) + " "
                            + names[i - 1];
                    return output;
                }
            }

            return Long.toString(dif / steps[3]) + " " + names[3];

        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return "";
        }
    }

When I used this code and sent a message from my application , it should show me sent 1sec ago, but in my case it shows me wrong time delay. For eg. I sent the message at 6pm then when I check my application sent item at 6:15pm its should show me 15 mins ago. But it shows me 12 hrs. When i debugged code, got to know that now time show date as 1970 00:00:00, this is because Long now = System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000; when i remove that /1000 it shows me correct date and time. I am clue less why this is happening please help.

System::currentTimeMillis returns (who would guess?) time in milliseconds, so dividing by 1000 returns you value in seconds. It's obviously odd, because format.format() is parametrized with milliseconds, not seconds. So removing /1000 was the right step — Semyon Danilov, Aug 01 '14 at 12:15

Apoorv · Answer 1 · 2014-08-01T12:15:04.627

1

Use

android.text.format.DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString (long time, long now, long minResolution, int flags)

this will return time span in String format

For eg. if you pass a long value corresponding to 42 minutes ago in time and flags as DateUtils.FORMAT_ABBREV_RELATIVE the method will return 42 minutes ago

Official documentation DateUtils.getRelativeTimeSpanString

edited Aug 01 '14 at 12:15

answered Aug 01 '14 at 12:09

Apoorv

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This still gives me 12 Hours, I dont know why – Mayank Aug 02 '14 at 09:11

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

0

I would recommend using Joda-Time API. See this answer for reference.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:28

Community

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answered Aug 01 '14 at 12:35

EyesClear

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 01 '14 at 12:44

0

When you divide System.currentTimeMillis() by 1000 you are converting its value to seconds.

You're then using that value to create a date which is interpreting the seconds value as the milliseconds since Thu Jan 01 1970, hence the date difference.

answered Aug 01 '14 at 12:44

Daniel

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Can you tell me what can be the change that has to be done in the function of the question i have asked – Mayank Aug 01 '14 at 13:41

How to get the Time like facebook post eg. 1sec ago or 3hrs ago, In android application

3 Answers3