# format time as "\_\_\_\_\_\_ ago" **URL:** \ **Category:** rubyonrails-talk\ **Created:** [December 11, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/format-time-as-ago/21575 "2007-12-11T17:32:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rubynuby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rubynuby](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/rubynuby)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:32pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/format-time-as-ago/21575/1 "2007-12-11T17:32:47Z")
a lot of bloggy sites display time as this post was made X hours / X days / X months ago. this is so popular I'm sure RoR has a built in lib to do it, but I can't figure it out, searching google and the docs. there's an ago function, but it returns a Time. I need like the reverse. Is there one? ---
**Author:** ![rab](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/rab/32/710_2.png) [@rab](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/rab)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:50pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/format-time-as-ago/21575/2 "2007-12-11T17:50:06Z")
time\_ago\_in\_words [http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html#M000994](http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/DateHelper.html#M000994) -Rob Rob Biedenharn [http://agileconsultingllc.com](http://agileconsultingllc.com) Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com ---
**Author:** ![George\_Bailey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@George\_Bailey](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/George_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 5:51pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/format-time-as-ago/21575/3 "2007-12-11T17:51:12Z")
distance\_of\_time\_in\_words ---
**Author:** ![rubynuby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rubynuby](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/rubynuby)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2007, 9:21pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/format-time-as-ago/21575/4 "2007-12-11T21:21:31Z")
thank you 🙂