Relative Time in Rails: Simplified Guide

When working with dates and times in Ruby on Rails, it's important to be able to display them in a user-friendly format. One common way to do this is by using relative time, which displays the time elapsed since a certain event in a more human-readable way.

To display relative time in Rails, there are a few different methods you can use. One of the most common is the `time_ago_in_words` helper, which takes a DateTime object as an argument and returns a string representing the amount of time that has passed since that datetime.

For example, if you have a post created at `2019-01-01 12:00:00`, calling `time_ago_in_words(post.created_at)` would return "about 2 years ago".

Another useful helper is `distance_of_time_in_words`, which takes two DateTime objects as arguments and returns a string representing the amount of time between them.

For example, calling `distance_of_time_in_words(post.created_at, Time.now)` would return "about 2 years".

Both of these helpers can be customized with additional options, such as specifying the time zone or changing the string format.

In conclusion, using relative time in your Rails application can make your dates and times more user-friendly and easier to understand. By utilizing the `time_ago_in_words` and `distance_of_time_in_words` helpers, you can simplify the process of displaying relative time in your application.