Chronic Duration

A simple Ruby natural language parser for elapsed time. (For example, 4 hours and 30 minutes, 6 minutes 4 seconds, 3 days, etc.) Returns all results in seconds. Will return an integer unless you get tricky and need a float. (4 minutes and 13.47 seconds, for example.)

The reverse can also be accomplished with the output method. So pass in seconds and you can get strings like 4 mins 31.51 secs (default format), 4h 3m 30s, or 4:01:29.

>> require 'chronic_duration'
=> true
>> ChronicDuration.parse('4 minutes and 30 seconds')
=> 270
>> ChronicDuration.parse('0 seconds')
=> nil
>> ChronicDuration.parse('0 seconds', :keep_zero => true)
=> 0
>> ChronicDuration.output(270)
=> 4 mins 30 secs
>> ChronicDuration.output(0)
=> nil
>> ChronicDuration.output(0, :keep_zero => true)
=> 0 secs
>> ChronicDuration.output(270, :format => :short)
=> 4m 30s
>> ChronicDuration.output(270, :format => :long)
=> 4 minutes 30 seconds
>> ChronicDuration.output(270, :format => :chrono)
=> 4:30
>> ChronicDuration.output(1299600, :weeks => true)
=> 2 wks 1 day 1 hr
>> ChronicDuration.output(1299600, :weeks => true, :units => 2)
=> 2 wks 1 day
>> ChronicDuration.output(45*24*60*60 + 15*60, :limit_to_hours => true)
=> 1080 hrs 15 mins
>> ChronicDuration.output(1299600, :weeks => true, :units => 2, :joiner => ', ')
=> 2 wks, 1 day
>> ChronicDuration.output(1296000)
=> 15 days

Nil is returned if the string can't be parsed

Examples of parse-able strings:

• '12.4 secs'
• '1:20'
• '1:20.51'
• '4:01:01'
• '3 mins 4 sec'
• '2 hrs 20 min'
• '2h20min'
• '6 mos 1 day'
• '47 yrs 6 mos and 4d'
• 'two hours and twenty minutes'
• '3 weeks and 2 days'

ChronicDuration.raise_exceptions can be set to true to raise exceptions when the string can't be parsed.

>> ChronicDuration.raise_exceptions = true
=> true
>> ChronicDuration.parse('4 elephants and 3 Astroids')
ChronicDuration::DurationParseError: An invalid word "elephants" was used in the string to be parsed.

Fork and pull request after your specs are green. Add your handle to the list below. Also looking for additional maintainers.

errm,pdf, brianjlandau, jduff, olauzon, roboman, ianlevesque, bolandrm

• Benchmark, optimize
• Context specific matching (E.g., for '4m30s', assume 'm' is minutes not months)
• Smartly parse vacation-like durations (E.g., '4 days and 3 nights')
• :chrono output option should probably change to something like 4 days 4:00:12 instead of 4:04:00:12
• Other locale support