Usage Guide

Pass the date into the timeago.Parse() function. It calculates the interval between the current datetime and the given datetime, returning a parsed string in the format x time ago. The library can work not only with dates in the past but future dates as well. The usage is pretty straight forward.

Allowed types

The timeago.Parse() function accepts different types of datetime and returns the result and an error. The allowed inputs are:

• Unix timestamp: int, int64, int32, uint, uint64, uint32, string
  • Example: 1642607826
• Type from Go time package: time.Time
  • Example: time.Now()
• Datetime string in format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS
  • Example: 2019-10-23 10:46:11

Any other types or formats passed to the Parse function will return an error!

Date in the Past

If you pass a date in the past, Timeago will return output containing the word ago, indicating that the date is in the past. Unless you specify the noSuffix option. Read here about options and how to use them.

import (
	"fmt"
	"time"

	"github.com/SerhiiCho/timeago/v2"
)

func main() {
	pastDate := time.Now().Add(-time.Minute * 5)
	out, err := timeago.Parse(pastDate)

	if err != nil {
		// handle error
	}

	fmt.Println(out) // Output: "5 minutes ago"
}

Date in the Future

Future dates are also supported. Timeago will return the correct string without the word ago when the date is in the future.

import (
	"fmt"
	"time"

	"github.com/SerhiiCho/timeago/v2"
)

func main() {
    pastDate := time.Now().Add(time.Hour * 2)
    res, err := timeago.Parse(pastDate)

    if err != nil {
        // handle error
    }

    fmt.Println(res) // Output: "2 hours"
}