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StudioLE/NaturalLanguageExtensions.cs

Last active September 5, 2022 11:22
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Convert TimeSpan and DateTime to a natural language representations
Raw
NaturalLanguageExtensions.cs
/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="TimeSpan"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10).ToNaturalLanguage();
/// // 10 seconds
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this TimeSpan @this)
{
const int daysInWeek = 7;
const int daysInMonth = 30;
const int daysInYear = 365;
const long threshold = 100 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMillisecond;
@this = @this.TotalSeconds < 0
? TimeSpan.FromSeconds(@this.TotalSeconds * -1)
: @this;
return (@this.Ticks + threshold) switch
{
< 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerSecond => "a second",
< 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => @this.Seconds + " seconds",
< 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerMinute => "a minute",
< 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => @this.Minutes + " minutes",
< 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerHour => "an hour",
< 1 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Hours + " hours",
< 2 * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a day",
< 1 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => @this.Days + " days",
< 2 * daysInWeek * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a week",
< 1 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInWeek).ToString("F0") + " weeks",
< 2 * daysInMonth * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a month",
< 1 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => (@this.Days / daysInMonth).ToString("F0") + " months",
< 2 * daysInYear * TimeSpan.TicksPerDay => "a year",
_ => (@this.Days / daysInYear).ToString("F0") + " years"
};
}
/// <summary>
/// Convert a <see cref="DateTime"/> to a natural language representation.
/// </summary>
/// <example>
/// <code>
/// (DateTime.Now - TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10)).ToNaturalLanguage()
/// // 10 seconds ago
/// </code>
/// </example>
public static string ToNaturalLanguage(this DateTime @this)
{
TimeSpan timeSpan = @this - DateTime.Now;
return timeSpan.TotalSeconds switch
{
>= 1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " until",
<= -1 => timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage() + " ago",
_ => "now",
};
}
Raw
NaturalLanguageExtensionsTests.cs
[TestCase("a second", 0)]
[TestCase("a second", 1)]
[TestCase("2 seconds", 2)]
[TestCase("a minute", 0, 1)]
[TestCase("5 minutes", 0, 5)]
[TestCase("an hour", 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("2 hours", 0, 0, 2)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 24)]
[TestCase("a day", 0, 0, 0, 1)]
[TestCase("6 days", 0, 0, 0, 6)]
[TestCase("a week", 0, 0, 0, 7)]
[TestCase("4 weeks", 0, 0, 0, 29)]
[TestCase("a month", 0, 0, 0, 30)]
[TestCase("6 months", 0, 0, 0, 6 * 30)]
[TestCase("a year", 0, 0, 0, 365)]
[TestCase("68 years", int.MaxValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_TimeSpan(
string expected,
int seconds,
int minutes = 0,
int hours = 0,
int days = 0
)
{
// Arrange
TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);
// Act
string result = timeSpan.ToNaturalLanguage();
// Assert
Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}
[TestCase("now", 0)]
[TestCase("10 minutes ago", 0, -10)]
[TestCase("10 minutes until", 10, 10)]
[TestCase("68 years until", int.MaxValue)]
[TestCase("68 years ago", int.MinValue)]
public void NaturalLanguageHelpers_DateTime(
string expected,
int seconds,
int minutes = 0,
int hours = 0,
int days = 0
)
{
// Arrange
TimeSpan timeSpan = new(days, hours, minutes, seconds);
DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
DateTime dateTime = now + timeSpan;
// Act
string result = dateTime.ToNaturalLanguage();
// Assert
Assert.That(result, Is.EqualTo(expected));
}
@StudioLE
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Author

StudioLE commented Sep 5, 2022 •
edited

The accepted answer by Vincent makes quite a few arbitrary decisions.
Why is 45 minutes rounded up to an hour while 45 seconds is not rounded up to a minute?
It also has an increased level of cyclomatic complexity within the years and month calculations that makes it more complex to follow the logic.
It makes the assumption that the TimeSpan is relative to the past (2 days ago) when it could very well be in the future (2 days until).

This implementation resolves the above and updates the syntax to use switch expressions and relational patterns

...

You can test it with NUnit as follows:

...

Or as a gist: https://gist.github.com/StudioLE/2dd394e3f792e79adc927ede274df56e

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