php - Should I store the result of an function into an array? -

i have function this:

function time_elapsed_string($ptime) {             $date_time = strtotime("1348-10-10 04:30:01") + $ptime;             $year = date("y",$date_time);             $month = date("m",$date_time);             $day = date("d",$date_time);             $time = date("h:i:s",$date_time);      $etime = time() - $ptime + 1;      $a = array( 31536000  =>  'year',                  2592000  =>  'month',                    86400  =>  'day',                     3600  =>  'hour',                       60  =>  'minute',                        1  =>  'second'                 );      foreach ($a $secs => $str)     {         $d = $etime / $secs;         if ($d >= 1)         {             $r = round($d);                                                                    // ex:             return array('date' => $day.'-'.$month.'-'.$year,      // 2016-02-20                          'time' => $time,                          // 03:30:04                          'difference' => $r . ' ' . $str . ' ago'  // 2 month ago                         );         }     } } 

and use this:

$ptime = 1470692661; $html = '<span title="date: '.time_elapsed_string($ptime)['date'].' time: '.time_elapsed_string($ptime)['time'].'">in '.time_elapsed_string($ptime)['difference'].'<span>'; 

as see, i'm using of function's result this:

time_elapsed_string($ptime)['date'] ime_elapsed_string($ptime)['time'] time_elapsed_string($ptime)['difference'] 

in fact i'm calling function every time need 1 of results. right? or should call once , store array?

note: code works well.

counting time elapsed since date/time mauvais ton.

datetime has been available since php 5.2.0 , tonns of people underestimate it. why don't use instead of loops , ifs?

$create_time = "2016-08-02 12:35:04"; $current_time="2016-08-02 16:16:02";  $dtcurrent = datetime::createfromformat('y-m-d h:i:s', $current_time); // use current timestamp, use following: //$dtcurrent = new datetime(); $dtcreate = datetime::createfromformat('y-m-d h:i:s', $create_time); $diff = $dtcurrent->diff($dtcreate); 

now, can format result want:

$interval = $diff->format("%h hours %i minutes %s seconds"); 

this give clean 3 hours 40 minutes 58 seconds without arrays, better.

update

there general solution hours / minutes / seconds via regex:

$interval = $diff->format("%y years %m months %d days %h hours %i minutes %s seconds");  // remove 0 values $interval = preg_replace('/(^0| 0) (years|months|days|hours|minutes|seconds)/', '', $interval); 

update 2

as of comment:

look, want use approach .. cannot implement .. need 3 things: time, date, difference ..! approach doesn't give me them..

well, know how difference, it's $interval variable described above.

to time , date, can $dtcreate variable by, again, using format:

$time = $dtcreate->format('h:i:s'); $date = $dtcreate->format('d-m-y');